San Franciso Chronicle:  “Karin Prangley, an estate-planning attorney in Chicago, became an expert on post-mortem online assets after experiencing first-hand such complications.  When her father-in-law had a stroke in 2008, his building supplies business lost between $10,000 and $15,000 because packages continued to arrive at his warehouse and no one had any idea where they were supposed to go.  His address book and e-mails were all locked behind password-protected accounts and, eventually, Prangley and other relatives had no choice but to reconstruct her father-in-law's list of contacts on their own. . . . So what happens to our digital identity when we die? Odds are it will remain trapped in the Internet without someone investing quite some time and effort.”

This story in the Arizona Republic is about three recently filed lawsuits in which the plaintiffs allege that lawyers and fiduciaries who had a duty to protect their elderly clients instead are alleged to have done the opposite. “The old lady who lost all her money while being ‘protected' by Maricopa County's probate court is now pleading her case to another court — and she isn't the only one.  ‘Obviously, it (the probate system) isn't doing what it's intended to do, it isn't protecting vulnerable adults,' said attorney Grant Goodman, who filed the lawsuits after reading about 88-year-old Marie Long, who went from having $1.3 million to nothing in four years.  ‘It's actually allowing these predators to strip these estates bare under the cloth of

BBC News:  “A court in Hong Kong has thrown out a feng shui master's claim to the multi-billion dollar estate of Asia's richest woman, Nina Wang.  Tony Chan, who said he was Nina Wang's lover, had argued she left him her fortune in a 2006 will.  But a high court judge said the will was a fake and a 2002 will was valid which left the estate to a charitable trust run by Wang's family.  Nina Wang's Chinachem was worth $4.2bn (£2.1bn) when she died in 2007.”

Forbes:  “Putting affairs in order before it's too late is important.  Celebrity stories can help spring clients into action.  As professionals, one of the challenges that we have is motivating our clients to do their estate planning. You can educate clients about the proper estate planning and how it can help them, their families and their estate tax returns. The fact of the matter remains, however, that many clients will have excuses to push their legal planning to the back burner.  Whatever the reasons, procrastination is common when it comes to clients doing the proper estate planning . . . . “

The Independent:  “As he fights prostate cancer, a vicious battle is already being waged for the millions the actor earned from films such as Easy Rider. Then again, says Guy Adams, this is a hellraiser who was never likely to go quietly. . . . Hopper is once more involved in a dramatic Hollywood ending. Unfortunately, this one involves the messy final chapter of his tumultuous life.  The 73-year-old method actor, who is fighting prostate cancer that is widely reported to be terminal, has been caught up in an ugly legal battle with his fifth wife Victoria Duffy, to whom he's been happily married for 14 years.”

KTRK TV 13:   “A real-life family feud is playing itself out in Houston's courts. There are accusations of missing cash and gold, and at the center of it all is one sister accused of stealing from her mother, who has dementia.  When Louise Staunton, 94, and her husband were making their fortune in Michigan and raising a big family, they probably never thought it would end up in a fight among their daughters.  “This is the last thing she needs in the twilight of her years,' said attorney James Plummer.  One of whom is now in jail.” For more see a followup story by KTRK TV 13 called “Where'd the gold go?“

IndyStar.com:  “Bren Simon [wife of deceased billionair Melvin Simon] has filed a counterclaim against the company her late husband co-founded, charging Simon Property Group with breach of agreement for refusing to give her stock or cash for her partnership holdings.  She also contends that her stepson, the Indianapolis-based company's chairman and CEO, David Simon, is behind the denial.  The counterclaim ratchets up the stakes in a growing legal battle over the $1 billion-plus estate of Melvin Simon, who died in September at 82.”

naplesnews.com:  “If your net worth is high enough to be subject to the evil estate tax, chances are you worked your tail off all or most of your adult life to accumulate your wealth. But draw your last breath and the estate tax monster wants to devour about half your wealth. Not a pretty picture.  It’s sad  Worse yet is the complete failure of almost all professional advisors to take you, your family and your business out of the horrible estate tax picture.  Die, and your estate pays; but fortunately, you – with the right tax planning – don’t have to lose any of your wealth to the estate tax monster.   Do you have enough wealth to be clobbered by the estate tax? Then

Daily Finance:  “At first blush, Casey Johnson and Ruth Lilly, who died within days of each other around the new year, could hardly have been more different.  Johnson . . ., who died at 30, was a party animal who lived her life in the public eye, most recently as the fiancée of D-list celebrity Tila Tequila.  Lilly, 94, made her biggest waves not with clubbing but philanthropy — most famously with her $200 million donation in 2002 to the Poetry Foundation, a bequest so eye-popping that the controversy surrounding it hasn't yet died down.  But scratch the surface, and similarities emerge.  Johnson and Lilly were both heiresses to major corporate fortunes: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY).  Both had massive

The Probate Lawyer Blog: “William Davidson and Melvin Simon had a lot in common.  Both were billionaires and both were Jewish.   Simon built his fortune through the country's biggest shopping mall company, Simon Property Group, and Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.3 billion.  Davidson led Guardian Industries Corp., one of the world's largest glass suppliers, and had a fortune recently tabbed at $4.5 billion.  They also each owned NBA franchises in the midwest.  Davidson owned the Detroit Pistons (yeah!), while Simon co-owned the rival Indiana Pacers (boo!) with his brother, Herbert Simon.  Both men died last year, with Davidson passing away at age 86 in March and Simon passing in October, at age 82.  And both were survived by spouses as well as

New York Times:  “I am utterly spent by the time my father lands in the emergency room, shortly after 1 a.m. on a cold January night.  We have been through the drill so many times that when the nursing home calls to tell me the ambulance just left, I do not even bother to phone my siblings, who live in other states.” “Does your father have a living will?”  I freeze. No emergency room doctor has asked me this before. I answer, evenly, yes. “Do you have durable power of attorney?” Yes.  Visibly relieved, he looks me in the eye and gently but pointedly asks: “Does your father want us to employ extreme measures” — he pauses one heartbeat for emphasis — “knowing that he

Arizona Republic:  “An 88-year-old lady left destitute, a big chunk of her life savings sucked dry by people who were supposed to protect her, may yet get some of her money back.  Brian Theut, the guardian ad litem appointed to look out for Marie Long, has asked a judge to order Phoenix attorney Brenda Church to return half of the $110,000 that her law firms collected from Marie's trust between 2005 and 2008. Church was the attorney for Marie's niece, Genevieve Olen, who oversaw Marie's money until late last year, when there wasn't anything left to oversee.  Meanwhile, Church has filed paperwork seeking court approval of another $233,000, money she (or rather her law firm, Frazer, Ryan, Goldberg & Arnold) collected from Marie's dwindling account

Washington Post:  “Heather Pierce lives in Glover Park, but much of her life floats in the cloud.  Her e-mail is stored in that vast digital space, bouncing between Yahoo server farms. Her bank statements reside there, too, along with her mortgage payments, credit card files, movie rental account, library book list, home videos and hundreds of photos — on Shutterfly, Facebook and her blog. She has only a few hard-copy photos of her 17-month-old daughter.  If Pierce's house caught fire, what would she dash in to save?  Not much, probably. . . . Pierce, 38, recently paid $29.99 to sign up for a year's access to yet another account in the cloud — one that stores all her passwords and log-in information and, when the

NoozHawk:  “Asking whether you need estate planning is a much bigger question than asking whether your estate will be taxed after you die because it’s small enough to be exempt from the estate tax law.  Although the value of your estate is one of the first questions you must answer before proceeding, it’s more important to decide who will receive the assets you have and when.  Who should be responsible for taking care of your minor children, or disabled loved ones, if you become unable to do so”You need to know who should manage those assets if you can’t, both during your lifetime and after your death.

Financial Planning:  “When it comes to estate planning, wealthy families don’t worry whether there will be enough money for the kids but whether the kids will be responsible enough to handle the money.  Playing a role in preparing heirs is a key way for advisors to distinguish their businesses, be more visible among centers of influence, get client referrals and maintain heirs as clients.  Each year over 7,000 estates worth more than $20 million transition from one generation to the next, but while estate planners are 98% effective at preparing these assets to be passed on, that preparation goes to waste in 70% of the cases. (In some 20% to 25% of wealthy families, the heirs end up suing each other).

IndyStar:  “Now the company that shopping-mall tycoon Melvin Simon built is becoming legally entangled in the family feud over the late billionaire's will.  Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, the world's largest publicly traded retail estate company, filed a complaint Monday in Hamilton Superior Court against Simon's widow, Bren Simon.  She is seeking to convert about 6.5 million shares of ‘partnership share units' in the family trust into common stock or cash.  The amount of stock or cash was not specified.  The company, in its complaint, said the shares cannot be converted because they are tied up in a legal challenge to Melvin Simon's will by Deborah Simon, a daughter from a previous marriage.”

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  “It's been seven months since the King of Pop died suddenly at the age of 50, and fights surrounding his estate seem like they may last for many years to come.   Creditors are coming out of the woodwork, with new ones surfacing on a weekly basis.  The latest, a management company, joins a series of business, medical and spiritual advisers and others who insist they are owed money, totaling more than $20 million, already. That total will certainly climb.  The estate co-executors, John Branca and John McClain, have to sort through the requests for money and try to determine the legitimate ones from the ones that are, well, more fiction than fact. It's common when someone wealthy and eccentric passes

Rocnow:  “The daughter and a grand-nephew of real estate magnate Max Farash improperly diverted more than $12 million from the company he built and trusts in his name and that of his late wife, two lawsuits filed in state Supreme Court this week charge.  The allegations against Lynn Farash and Matthew Aroesty were laid out in complaints brought Tuesday by the Farash Corp. and the guardian of Max Farash in one case, and Canandaigua National Bank, the trustee of Marian Farash’s trust, in the other.   The lawsuits are the latest outgrowth of a legal battle over the guardianship and wills of Max and Marian Farash since both were declared mentally incapacitated in April 2007.  Max, 96, currently resides in a Webster nursing home.  Marian died

The Washington Post has a story about a New York charity suing the estate of Bill Davidson, the former owner of the NBA's Detroit Pistons basketball team.  The Areivim Philanthropic Group claims the estate owes $4.8 million of a $5 million gift Mr. Davidson promised when he help found the charity.