A 1954 letter from the corporate trustee established an agreement for trustee compensation of 5% of income, and the trustee did not produce evidence of extraordinary services to merit additional compensation or that the resulting fee was unreasonable. However, neither … Continue reading
Category Archives: Opinions
A lawyer representing the beneficiary of an estate is entitled to a “charging lien” against the beneficiary’s share of the estate for work performed before being discharged by the beneficiary, based on an oral agreement that the lawyer’s billings could … Continue reading
Because 20 Pa.C.S. § 6111.2(b)(4) does not require that a post-divorce “designation of a former spouse as a beneficiary” be in writing, and because the decedent “substantially complied” with the life insurance policy provisions for beneficiary designations by orally advising … Continue reading
Executor and her attorney were surcharged for excessive and unreasonable attorney fees because the attorney time records that were submitted had the descriptions of services redacted and so they failed to meet their burden of proof. Stoughton Estate, 10 Fid.Rep.3d … Continue reading
Costs incurred in selling decedent’s home were substantiated by a HUD settlement statement, and objections to minor discrepancies between the account and the amounts shown on the settlement statement were de minimis and overruled. Objection to attorney fee of $1,000, … Continue reading
The administrator of an estate cannot require an alleged child of the decedent to take a DNA test, and the child may rely on the other factors in 20 Pa.C.S. § 2107(c) to establish paternity. Ackley, Sr. Estate, 10 Fid.Rep.3d … Continue reading
When a charitable nonprofit corporation did not agree to maintain a mosaic on the outside of the building it owns, the preservation of the mosaic would be expensive and is not within the charity’s exempt purposes, and the decision of … Continue reading
Preliminary objections to an answer and new matter is not a pleading allowed by Pa. O.C. Rules and is improper. Further, a party does not lack standing merely because the petition fails to name them as an interested party. Mahlstadt … Continue reading
An agent’s change of an IRA beneficiary was invalid when the decedent was obligated under a divorce settlement agreement to name his children as beneficiaries. Trembley Agent for Lasser, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 229 (Chester O.C. 2020). … Continue reading
The Orphans’ Court did not abuse its discretion in allowing a surviving spouse to revoke her election against her husband’s will three and a half years after the deadline for making the election when the spouse did not have full … Continue reading