On January 6, 2017, the Supreme Court adopted a new public access policy (“the Policy”) for records of appellate and trial courts in Pennsylvania, which became effective January 6, 2018. The Policy applies to filings in the Orphans’ Courts of...
The tax bill formerly known as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (H.R. 1) is now Public Law No. 115-97. The official title of the act is “To provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent … Continue reading
Up until the Tax Reform Act of 1986, grantor trust status was something to be avoided, but thanks to rulings by the Internal Revenue Service, intentionally creating a grantor trust is now an accepted estate and gift tax planning strategy. … Continue reading
[This article was published in the PBA Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Newsletter, No. 73 (Summer 2013), p. 12.] Pennsylvania inheritance tax law allows a trust for the “sole use” of the surviving spouse to be taxed entirely at...
The Act of July 8, 2016, No. 79 of 2016 (“Act 79”), enacting S.B. 1104, put into effect a number of changes to the Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code (PEF Code, Title 20 of Pa.C.S.) that had been recommended by...
Pennsylvania has enacted a new “Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable Act” (CARE Act), H.B. 1329, Act of April 20, 2016, No. 20, effective in 12 months. This new law attempts to help family members and other “lay caregivers” of people...
[This article was originally published in Probate & Property, Vol. 19, No. 4, p. 22 (July/August 2005).] The year 2004 marked the end of the federal estate tax credit for state death taxes, and the end of any state death … Continue reading
Can the beneficiaries of a trust agree to a modification of the trust in accordance with 20 Pa.C.S. § 7740.1 that allows them to remove and replace a corporate trustee without any showing that the trustee can be removed in … Continue reading
(This article originally appeared in the PBA Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Newsletter, No. 75, p. 19 (Summer 2014).) [This article has not yet been updated to reflect the enactment of the Directed Trust Act as part of Act...
As noted earlier, five different Supreme Court procedural rules committees (Criminal, Juvenile, Civil, Domestic Relations, and Orphans’ Court) have joined together to submit a proposal to revise all state-wide rules to require that local rules be published on-line by each … Continue reading