Arizona Estate Planning

Maricopa County Probate Court Better Than Most Others

National Center for State Courts: As considerable national attention continues to be focused on the neglect and exploitation of incapacitated people — many of them seniors — by court-appointed guardians, the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County is more effective in protecting and preventing the mistreatment of protected individuals and their property than most other probate courts in the country, according to a report by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). The report was released this month following a yearlong assessment of the court's Probate and Mental Health Department.

“After conducting an in-depth study of the adult guardianship and conservatorship cases handled by the Probate and Mental Health Department and consulting with a number of other national experts, the NCSC team concluded that the manner in which caseflow management techniques, case monitoring, and court support staff are used in Maricopa County is more sophisticated and effective than most other probate courts in the nation,” said David C. Steelman, principal court management consultant with the National Center.

On the Net2017-10-07T11:14:45-07:00October 4th, 2011|Probate|

Probate Explained

Toledo Free Press: As an estate planning attorney, I (Mark) often deal with helping the clients of The Retirement Guys plan how to best pass their assets on to their loved ones when they pass away. This is a very serious matter if you think about it. Folks have worked hard all their lives to provide the best lives they can to their family members. They have sweated, sacrificed and gone without to make a better life. Think back on how you sacrificed.

The first thing everyone should consider is creating a will. This document decides where all your stuff goes when you die. How does it do this? By a process called probate. Many have heard the expression, “avoid probate,” or “probate is bad.” Is it really? Let’s take a moment to examine this and see if we can better understand this evil thing called probate. What is probate? My definition of probate is that it is a court-supervised process to get assets that are titled in your name to where you want them to go.

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:40-08:00September 23rd, 2011|Probate|

Country Music Takes On Probate Abuse

Estate of Denial: On their Hell on Heels debut album, a new group called the Pistol Annies (Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Pressley) has a song entitled Family Feud.

Heads up legal industry! Country music has a long legacy of capturing American life stories. When mainstream music picks up grave robbing and estate looting as one of those life stories – just a thought – but maybe the estate abuse issue has “arrived.”

“Shining light on the dark side of estate management” was our mission upon starting Estate of Denial® five years ago. While real reform of the culture surrounding probate systems will take time, any short-term opportunity to help more people more easily identify property poaching via probate (wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney) is welcomed. Family Feud delivers just that message

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:40-08:00September 1st, 2011|Estate Fights, Estate Planning, Probate|

Contrived Probate Disputes Hard To Avoid

Estate of Denial: Call us jaded, but suggestions of how to avoid “unforeseen” estate issues never seem to take into account the real ugliness at work in today’s world whereby individuals – both inside and outside the legal profession – often contrive probate disputes. All the “proper estate planning” in the world can’t stop an estate from being targeted by any combination of determined disgruntled family members, wannabe heirs and unscrupulous legal professionals.

Here at Estate of Denial®, we term such acts an Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) defined simply as the use of probate venues and/or probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney) to divert assets from intended heirs or beneficiaries. IRA cases certainly involve a looting of assets – often of the dead, disabled, incapacitated and/or their heirs or beneficiaries, but with guardianships, it can also involve a hijacking of basic civil liberties.

And a fight within any of these scenarios often becomes an eye-opening experience that exposes the self-interested, protectionist nature of the legal industry which comprises lawyers, judges, court-related personnel and other officials (elected officials, law enforcement, etc.) or professionals utilizing our legal system to pursue goals counterproductive to the general public’s interests in their individual or collective capacities or both. Rarely does one walk away from these experiences with increased respect for the law or confidence in the “rights” alleged to protect Americans from an assortment of harms.

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:40-08:00August 30th, 2011|Estate Fights, Estate Planning, Probate|