Preliminary objections by Attorney General to petition of agent upheld, the court finding that it did not have the power to undo annuity beneficiary designations made by agent during decedent’s lifetime. Scutchall Estate, 4 Fid.Rep.3d 311 (O.C. Franklin Co. 2015) … Continue reading
Category Archives: Opinions
It was not an abuse of discretion for the Orphans’ Court to deny termination of mother’s parental rights when mother had maintained contact with child while in foster care and had made some progress in maintaining emotional stability, and there … Continue reading
It was not an abuse of discretion for the Orphans’ Court to deny father’s request for a continuance of a termination hearing in order to obtain counsel when father received adequate notice of the hearing and of his right to … Continue reading
A trust may be modified under 20 Pa.C.S. § 7740.1(d) to allow the beneficiaries to remove and replace a corporate trustee without regard to the conditions for removing trustees under 20 Pa.C.S. § 7766. Trust under Agreement of Edward Winslow … Continue reading
Provision of will allowing decedent’s wife and daughters to operate “farms” on decedent’s property did not allow the executor to continue to administer the property forty-three years after the decedent’s death when only a part of the property was leased … Continue reading
Specific performance of option to purchase real estate was enforced against the estate, notwithstanding delay of more than 10 years from the initial order allowing the exercise of the option and the recording of a lis pendens, the court finding … Continue reading
Objections to executor’s account were denied to the extent they related to a private auction of real estate among the beneficiaries because the sale had been authorized and approved by the court in previous litigation, even though the terms of … Continue reading
Counsel fees of $34,848, paid from an estate of $102,852, reduced to $18,000, and executor surcharged for excess, when the testimony of counsel was conclusory and failed to justify the fee paid from an estate with no unusual complexities or … Continue reading
Co-executors of the estate of a deceased lawyer, who had served as his secretaries and performed much of the legal work in the administration of the estate, were allowed as commissions the same percentage of the estate that the decedent … Continue reading
Provisions of will were insufficient to change the beneficiary designation of an individual retirement account (IRA), there being no evidence that the decedent made reasonable efforts to comply with the terms of the account; objections to payments to claimant were … Continue reading