Disputes between widows and their stepchildren are among the most common type of estate battles. These can involve will and trust contests, accusations of elder financial abuse, deed revocations and much more. In many cases, tensions between stepmothers and stepchildren while the husband/father is alive escalate into all-out legal battles after he dies. This can happen […]

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Someone close to you is working on his or her estate plan and has asked you to be the executor. You’re honored and a little frightened. What does it involve? Do you want to take on the responsibility? Do you have the time, temperament and skills necessary? People often choose the closest family member or […]

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Your great aunt died, and you learn that because you were always her favorite, she left you her home. That may sound like an unexpected bit of good fortune amid the grief of losing a loved one. However, home ownership isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — particularly if the house is old, in […]

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People often put no-contest clauses in their wills because they don’t want their family members or others fighting over what they see as an unfair division of assets. These clauses may state that anyone who contests a will and tries to invalidate all or part of it is disinherited completely. This can, understandably, make a […]

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Just because you prepare a will and other estate plan documents that are legally valid doesn’t mean that there won’t be conflicts among heirs, including siblings. If parents leave their home, for example, to just one of their children, the others may be hurt and angry. In a letter recently published in The New York […]

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Estate plans are something that your loved ones might have in place to make it easy to handle their estate when they pass away. It is possible that some family members might fight against these estate plans, but they must have a good reason to do so. At Conver & Grebe LLP, we understand that […]

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Dissatisfied family members have attempted to challenge wills ever since their creation as a tool to make one’s end of life wishes known and pass on property to heirs. It is, in many ways, a fixture of the process for many families. These days, however, the notion “I deserve this particular piece of property, it’s […]

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Even people who don’t have a will or estate plan can designate a beneficiary on their bank accounts. This is known in the banking world as a payable on death (POD) account. It prevents the account from going into probate and allows the beneficiary to have access to the funds simply by presenting the death certificate of […]

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There are a lot of things that you have to handle when a loved one passes away. You may have to make the final arrangements. You might have to handle other duties, as well. If you are the executor of the estate, or even if you are just a concerned heir, you will have to […]

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Estate planning attorneys are finding that people are increasingly drafting wills and other estate documents at younger ages than in the past. The unexpected deaths of so many celebrities last year got a lot of people thinking about their own mortality sooner than they might have otherwise. The widespread coverage of terrorist attacks and other […]

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