The following article is adapted from written materials created for a Pennsylvania Bar Institute “webinar” of the same name, catalog #11095 (3/10/2020). The Treasury Department has published final regulations on the changes to the federal estate and gift tax basic…
The COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) contagion is starting to affect court operations in Pennsylvania.
By an administrative order dated March 12, 2020, the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court has suspended the call of the audit list in open court and has adopted special temporary procedures for the filing of accounts and objections.
Although not relevant to an estates or trust practice, it is also noteworthy that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has entered a standing order temporarily continuing all civil and criminal jury trials.
Further news will be posted here as details become available.
The Required Minimum Distribution Webcalculator has been updated to incorporate the changes made by the SECURE Act (Division O of P.L. 116-94).
Specifically:
For a more complete analysis of minimum required distributions, see “New (and Old) Minimum Required Distribution Rules Summarized.”
Judgment on the pleadings in an action for ejectment will be granted where the allegation of a common law marriage is based solely on cohabitation and an employer’s classification of one of the parties as a “domestic partner.” The grant of a testamentary life estate is also not relevant when the property owner is still living and her agent acts to sell the property. Cummins v. Ramos, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 44 (Bucks C.D. 2019), on appeal, 2945 EDA 2019.
The decedent’s inter vivos trust directed the division of the trust into a marital deduction trust and nonmarital trust, but no marital trust was necessary because the gross estate was less than the federal estate tax exclusion amount. The administration of the trust as though it was a marital trust, over which the surviving spouse had greater powers, was a patent error for which the trustees will be surcharged, and the counsel for the trustees is surcharged for failing to properly counsel the trustees. Jean Goodwin Trust, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 31 (Montgomery O.C. 2019).
Executor is surcharged for distributions to individuals when the will made no specific gifts to anyone and the distributions were in violation of the provisions of the decedent’s will. Jean Goodwin Estate, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 29 (Montgomery O.C. 2019).
On an appeal from the decree of the Register denying probate of a photocopy of a will, the appeal will be upheld when the proponent is able to produce the original will and prove the will by the testimony of two witnesses. Estate of William O. Walden, No. 1390AP of 2018 (Philadelphia O.C. 2/18/2020).
Deed of decedent’s property to administrator individually, executed two months before being appointed administrator, was voidable and voided by the court, and the mortgage of the property executed after letters were granted, but signed by administrator in her individual capacity, was void because the mortgagee had constructive notice of the fraudulent deed. Estate of Mable Floyd, Deceased, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 40, No. 783DE of 2019 (Philadelphia O.C. 12/11/2019).
The presumption that a child born during a marriage is the child of both parents applies even in same-sex marriages, and so the non-birth parent has standing in a dependency hearing over the child. In the Interest of: A.M., a Minor, 2019 PA Super 344 (11/19/2019).
Although a nonprofit corporation formed as a volunteer fire company had been decertified and could no longer fight fires in accordance with its original charitable purposes, involuntary dissolution and cy pres would not be applied when the corporation continues to perform charitable services and may be able to qualify to fight fires in other nearby communities. In re: Independent Fire Co. No. 1, 9 Fid.Rep.3d 20 (Lycoming O.C. 2018), aff’d on other grounds, No. 1489 C.D. 2018 (Cmwlth Ct. 2/5/2020).