Forbes.com:  “What do Princess Di, Marlon Brando, Heath Ledger, Jimi Hendrix and former Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger have in common?  They all flubbed their estate planning costing intended heirs money and/or grief, according to a readable (really) estate planning how-to book, Trial & Heirs.  The new book uses these celebrity cliffhanger cases to dish out real-life advice.”

Bloomberg.com:  “Individuals who want to transfer wealth to their children may have a limited opportunity to put some assets in trusts that let them give the money tax-free.   Grantor-retained annuity trusts, known as GRATs, or irrevocable, intentionally defective grantor trusts allow the appreciation of certain assets to pass to heirs free of estate and gift taxes, said Brittney Saks, a partner in New York-based PriceWaterhouseCoopers’s Private Company Services.”

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  “Across the country in December, families will be coming together for the holidays.  Sometimes the holidays are one of the few times of year that family members see each other. They eat, share stories, and laugh together. Of course, there may be a few family squabbles, but hopefully no mash-potato flinging. Or will there be? Overall, the holidays are rare opportunities for family members to have face-to-face conversations.  One critical conversation is talking about estate planning — what happens legally when a loved one passes away.”

Slate: “If he admits she hit him, she could end up in jail, whether he likes it or not.”

BBC News:  “The daughter of Europe's richest woman, a L'Oreal heiress, has asked that she be placed under judicial supervision to stop her handing away her money.  Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers argues 87-year-old Liliane Bettencourt is no longer in her right mind after she gave away 1bn euros (£910m) to a friend.  Proceedings have been launched in a Paris court to have Mrs Bettencourt placed under court authority.”

Wall St. Journal:  “Republicans are hoping the looming expiration of the federal estate tax will force Democrats to agree to a compromise that would be more generous to taxpayers than the latter might prefer.  Regardless of the outcome, the estate-tax debate appears likely to go down to the wire, perhaps Christmas Eve.”  See also “Congress grapples with estate tax.”

Wall St. Journal:  “The House voted to permanently extend current estate-tax levels and prevent a repeal of the tax scheduled to be in effect next year.  The legislation, which passed 225-200, protects estates under $3.5 million, or $7 million for married couples, from the tax. It taxes inherited wealth above that amount at 45%.”

The Associated Press has the latest in the continuing saga of Congress' starts and stops at amending the federal estate tax law.

Wall St. Journal:  “Milton Hershey had no children so he said he would make the “orphan boys of the United States” his heirs.  To that end, the chocolatier founded the Milton Hershey School, which today serves 1,700 underprivileged children and has an endowment of $6.2 billion.  In 2005, Hershey had the nation’s fifth largest endowment, which was about half the size of Princeton’s and Stanford’s but larger than that of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

Estate of Denial:  “An industry exists in which lawyers, accountants and other unethical participants – sometimes with complicity from probate and other courts – can separate any of us from our property when certain (not that unusual) circumstances occur.  These situations can also be orchestrated at the behest of disgruntled family members or wannabe heirs.  Whether through the misuse or abuse of wills, trusts, guardianships or other probate-related scenarios, Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions can and do occur as a means of calculatedly diverting assets away from intended heirs/beneficiaries.”

Hartford Courant:  “Mention the name Buckley and most people think of the famous conservative columnist or perhaps the former Reagan cabinet member and federal judge.But long before the Buckley family name became synonymous with conservative politics, the family was striking it rich with oil, gas and mineral rights in places like Mexico and Venezuela.  Now six children of a Buckley clan from West Hartford are suing their father in Superior Court in Hartford claiming he has stolen money from a trust fund set up decades ago by their mother with proceeds from her share of the Buckley family fortune.”

US News & World Report:  “Combine the worst downturn since the Great Depression, mix in a steep drop in stock prices, and garnish with the disappearance of trillions of dollars in home values.  Voilà!  You have just stirred up the recipe for a surge in estate litigation and intrafamily feuding.  ‘I think we have definitely seen an increase in family squabbles and a lot more people wanting to contest wills,' says Adam Gaslowitz, an estate attorney in Atlanta . The recession also has led to reduced asset values for stocks and real estate, making it harder to split the pie and reach amicable settlements.  ‘I also think that the recession may be used, perhaps unconsciously, by some children to wrestle control of assets away from

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  “CNN and Fortune Magazine recently featured a fascinating article [called ‘Citizen Bunky: A Hearst family scandal‘ about the legal battle between John Randloph ‘Bunky' Hearst, Jr., and his ex-wife.  Bunky is one of the grandsons of famed media mogul William Randolph Hearst, who left behind the powerful Hearst Corp.   William Randolph Hearst died in 1951 with a trust and estate worth about $400 million in today's dollars.    But, more importantly, his trust established a corporate framework that enabled his board of trustees to expand the Hearst holdings into a multi-billion dollar media empire, owning hundreds of magazines, newspapers, television stations, 20% of ESPN and more.”

Patriot News:  “Decide now how to distribute your assets and protect your family after your death, or the state  . . . will decide for you.  ‘Dying without a will — everything gets thrown in one big pot, and goes in an undefined way to undefined recipients,' said Elyse Rogers, a partner with Keefer Wood Allen & Rahal LLP in Harrisburg.   Even the most basic estate planning may require professional assistance, but help can be affordable and often prevents litigation that can tie up your estate or diminish your legacy.  ‘I try to make people understand that your estate planning is a lot more than writing a will,' Rogers said.  ‘It’s beneficiary designation and joint ownership and how we pass assets outside the will.'”

Wall St. Journal:  “Dodgers team owner Frank McCourt, locked in a nasty divorce fight with his wife, Jamie, says he is behind on his mortgage payments and essentially living from paycheck to paycheck.  Mr. McCourt's bleak financial assessment, filed in court papers, sheds light on a question first asked when the McCourts landed here in 2004 and bought the hometown baseball team: How much money do they really have?”

Wall St. Journal:  Natalie Choate, an estate-planning lawyer and retirement plan expert answers the following question: My wife and I are retired and both are covered by my medical practice's “professional practice corporation” retirement plans. We are in the process of discarding our old wills and creating a living trust. We have one daughter and two grandchildren and would appreciate knowing how to designate the beneficiary forms so that when one of us dies, the maximum benefits go to the living spouse first, then get stretched on for the daughter and grandchildren.

Andrew Mayoras and Danielle Mayoras were interviewed by Forbes.com about their new book “Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!“

North Carolina Estate Planning Blog:  “This posting is courtesy of my colleague David Goldman in Jacksonville, Florida, who has created a special trust for owning weapons regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA).  Our Copyrighted NFA Trust is significantly different than any other Revocable Trust on the market. A NFA trust is created for the purpose of purchasing, owning, using, and transferring Title II weapons by you and your family.”

North Carolina Estate Planning Blog:  A man sued Bank of America because it refused to honor his father's power of attorney.  The man won damages of almost $65,000.  Three weeks before the man's father died, the son tried to transfer funds in his father's B of A account to a new account that only the father and son could access.  The father's account was held jointly with a woman he knew at his retirement home.  The bank refused to transfer the funds to the new account because it was against company policy.  When the father died three weeks later, the woman took all the money.  The jury struggled 15 minutes to reach its verdict.