Orange County Register:  “Late Newport Beach resident Joey Bishop's live-in companion, who was with him for his final eight years, won a round in her lawsuit against the comedian's former lawyers after a judge ruled that one of the attorneys cannot countersue her on allegations of financial elder abuse.  Reversing the tentative decision he issued Jan. 12 in favor of attorney Ed Gregory Hookstratten's motion, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ralph W. Dau ruled instead in favor of Nora Garibotti, the plaintiff in the case who argued that any countersuit should have been filed earlier.”

IndyStar.com:  “Bren Simon says her late husband and billionaire shopping-mall magnate Melvin Simon changed his will in part to prevent his three children from having a say over their stepmother's personal finances after he died.  The allegation of distrust within one of Indiana's most well-known and moneyed families comes in a 24-page court document Bren Simon filed Wednesday, vehemently denying a stepdaughter's complaint that she coerced her gravely ill husband to change his will to reduce the amount of money his children would inherit.”

The Trust Advisor: “As more wealthy families cross borders to protect assets, they choose to set up personal trusts in states other than their own to take advantage of favorable trust laws.  According to recent data, 72 percent of U.S. households with more than $1 million in investment assets use trusts as a key component to their estate planning.  The main reasons to cross borders are: Some states don’t tax assets held in a trust, while distributions might be taxable in your home state. Trust codes in some states seek to protect assets from lawsuits and creditors. Some states allow “dynasty trusts” which permit future generations to avoid estate taxes.” The study divides the “good” states Tier 1 (Alaska, South Dakota, Nevada & Delaware), Tier

Motley Fool:  “Despite what you may think, estate planning isn't all about what happens after you die.  Besides death, there are plenty of other unpleasantries — accident, injury, or other maladies that make you unable to manage your own affairs for a while — that can go much more smoothly for you and your loved ones if you've prepared for them ahead of time.  Planning your estate doesn't have to be painful.  Spend a minute to get your bearings and see how easy it can be to get your affairs in order.”

The New York Observer:  “Neil Bender, Greenwich Village's largest private landlord, caretaker of and disputed heir to the William Gottlieb real estate empire-which includes more than 100 individual properties in what has become one of the most valuable residential neighborhoods in New York City-is a reclusive, 54-year-old Springsteen fan with a thick shock of silver hair that he's wont to run his fingers through, a limp handshake, a stocky build, an affection for old cars, and a stable of critics that includes his tenants, his late Uncle Billy's old friends, his sister and nephew and his former osteopath.  “If Billy heard and found out all the things that were going on right now, he'd find it very deplorable,” said Michael Corbett, Mr. Bender's nephew and

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  “CNN's Fortune Magazine recently had a fascinating article about Ron Perelman's efforts to drag his paralyzed, infirm, and elderly ex-father-in-law through one of the most vicious estate battles we've seen in a while.  Perelman built most of his billion-dollar fortune through a hostile takeover of Revlon. In the process, he married and divorced four women, one of whom was Claudia Cohen (actress Ellen Barkin was another). Cohen came from a wealthy family herself. Her father and brother own and control Hudson Media, a powerful magazine company that is a long-time partner of Time, Inc.”

London Evening Standard:  “The squalor in which the 30-year-old pharmaceuticals heiress Casey Johnson spent the final days of her life was very different from the splendour in which she had been raised.  According to reports, the rented Mulholland Drive mansion in Los Angeles where Casey's dead body was discovered by a housekeeper had no water, electricity or gas; dirty dishes were piled in the kitchen and the pool was a rat-infested swamp.  By contrast, when Casey was three years old her family moved from Florida to a five-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, where nannies, butlers and chefs busied themselves around the gilded Johnson progeny.”

Boston.com:  “Muriel Bayne’s love for her cats was well known on Staniford Street in Auburndale. Neighborhood children called her the ‘Cat Lady'’ and Bayne’s pets were often seen contentedly peering from a picture window at the small ranch house where she lived for decades.  But Bayne, 77, had a weak heart. And after her husband’s death in 2001, she started worrying about what would happen to her cats when she died.  So she penned a will, leaving them the home and a $300,000 trust.  Weeks later, Bayne’s heart gave out.”

Forbes.com:  “Newly released data from the Internal Revenue Service show that from 2001 to 2007, as the estate tax was reduced, the percentage of wealthy decedents leaving charitable bequests declined too.  The report is stoking charities' longstanding fear that bequests would drop off if Congress allowed the estate tax to lapse–as it did as of Jan. 1. The estate tax doesn't apply to sums left to charity, and traditionally about 8% of donations come through bequests.”

Oregonlive.com:  “Plenty of gallows humor got bandied around when it became clear late last month that, amazingly, Congress was going to let the nation's estate tax lapse.   Whether any enfeebled people really were kept alive until 2010 to save their fortunes from taxation . . . . But the resulting vacuum has left estate lawyers and their wealthy clients in a different kind of coma.  And it might pose issues for middle-class heirs, too.   As it stands, there is no federal ‘death tax' on assets inherited by heirs who aren't spouses.  Congress didn't act quickly enough to extend or even revise the expired law that taxed inheritances above $3.5 million at up to 45 percent.  Next year, however, the tax returns to its

New York Times:  “DEATH and taxes, the adage goes, are the only certainties in life. But when it comes to the combination of the two, the estate tax, there is only uncertainty for 2010.   Most tax advisers thought that Congress would extend the estate tax before it was due to expire at the end of last year. But while the House did act, the Senate did not. So what few predicted would happen did happen: the tax is gone for one year but set to be revived in 2011 at a higher rate and a lower exemption, unless Congress acts.  It’s the first time since 1916 that rich Americans can contemplate dying without one last tax.”

Daily Pilot:  ‘The California Supreme Court this week rejected a Jewish organization’s appeal against the estate of Joey Bishop, the late entertainer and member of the ‘Rat Pack.'  But the legal battle over his fortune isn’t over yet, an attorney for the Newport Beach Chabad Center said Friday.   The center filed several lawsuits and claims against Bishop’s estate, alleging that the entertainer’s advisors and live-in caretaker blocked his final wishes to have part of his estate go toward setting up a charity for special-needs children in Orange County.  A longtime resident of Newport Beach, Bishop died Oct. 17, 2007, at his Lido Isle home at the age of 89.”

Vanity Fair:  “On receiving an estimated $2 billion inheritance after the death of her father, legendary Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, in 2003, Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen asked for a full accounting of his vast estate.  She claims she never got it.  Five years later, de Pahlen is a dynastic outcast and has rocked the family empire—now run by her 32-year-old son, John Elkann—with a lawsuit against her father’s three longtime consiglieri.  Hearing both sides, the author reports on a search for truth, a battle for control, and the possibility of a hidden Agnelli fortune.”

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  “Whitney Houston is no stranger to family fights in court.  In 2002, the entertainment company owned by her father, John Houston, sued her. John Houston said publicly that his company was owed $100 million and he expected his daughter to repay it.  He died in February of 2003, and the case was dismissed not long thereafter. Reportedly, Whitney Houston did not attend her father’s funeral service or burial.”

Newobserver.com:  “A bitter estate battle over the company that makes Johnston County's trademark fire-engine red hot dogs troubles the faithful leaving Cricket Grill with grease-stained paper bags stuffed with their lunchtime favorite.  Every week, Cricket sells thousands of Bright Leaf dogs — made for decades just a few miles down the road at Carolina Packers.  The dispute over the estate of John ‘Buck' Jones, the majority shareholder and president of Carolina Packers, centers on who will control this home-grown culinary institution — the widow Jones named as his sole heir just before he died or the three longtime employees who friends say in court documents Jones hoped would run the company.”

Forbes.com:  “Hotel heiress Leona Helmsley did it, and so can you–provide for your pets after you're gone. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia now have laws that specifically authorize the creation of trusts for the care of pets. That's up from 16 states in 2003, with Connecticut, Maryland and Vermont enacting their pet trust laws just last year.”

New York Post:  “If Fritz Lohman had only known, he would have waited another 13 hours to kick the bucket.  Lohman, 87, a SoHo real-estate magnate who pioneered the exhibition of gay art, died at home at about 11 a.m. on New Year's Eve after a long illness.  If he had instead passed away after midnight Jan.1, his partner of 48 years could have avoided paying at least $3 million in estate taxes — thanks to Congress letting that levy lapse for 2010.  ‘He would probably say, ‘Why didn't they tell me? I could have waited another day,' ‘ said Charles Leslie, 76, Lohman's business and life partner — and the sole beneficiary to his $10 million estate.”

Fortune:  “When the Revlon chairman sued his ex-father-in-law Robert Cohen and his ex-brother-in-law James Cohen in 2008, hardly anyone batted an eyelash.  Robert Cohen is the father of Perelman's late ex-wife, the society journalist Claudia Cohen. Perelman's suit sought to wrest control of half of Robert Cohen's fortune and bestow it on Samantha Perelman, the daughter he had with Claudia Cohen — even though Samantha is one of six grandchildren who are descendants of Robert. Perelman argued that, as executor of Claudia's estate, he had a duty to sue, because decades ago Robert had promised the money to Claudia.  Even by modern standards of dysfunctional-family estate battles — think of the Astor clan — this one was a lulu.”

San Francisco Chronicle:  “Astonishing just about everyone in the estate planning world, Congress let the estate tax expire in 2010.  While people who support the death of the estate tax might be jumping for joy, its temporary expiration comes with side effects and unintended consequences that will perplex many people and leave some worse off than they were last year.  People who set up bypass trusts leaving some money to their kids and the rest to their spouse and those whose assets have more than $1.3 million worth of appreciation might want to consult their estate planner.  What's really bewildering is the possibility that Congress will impose an estate tax retroactively to Jan. 1 (which probably would be challenged in court) or do nothing and