New York Post:  The prosecutor said in closing remarks in the 4-month-old Brook Astor swindle case that Brooke Astor “committed the unforgivable sin of living too long” and that her son “could not wait” for her money.  Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said that the elderly Astor said of her only child, “All he wants is money, money, money. I wish he had made something of himself, instead of waiting for the money.” Anthony Marshall faces up to 25 years in prison for allegedly strong-arming his frail, failing, century-old mother into signing over more than $60 million in bequests, money long promised to city institutions.  Astor was Marshall's “own little ATM,” [prosecutor] Seidemann told the Manhattan state Supreme Court jurors.  He noted that Astor had

TMZ.com:  Court papers show that the Michael Jackson probate court authorized the estate to pay Michael's mom, Katherine Jackson, $26,804 per month.  Not bad for a granny raising three young uns.  Michael's three kids, however, are a little more high maintenance.  Katherine Jackson will be paid $720,000 per year for the kids expenses, including $159,120 a year for “entertainment and other.” See also the LA Times story, “Jackson estate pays singer's mother $86,000 a month for expenses.”

CNN.com reports that the children of Martin Luther King are fighting in Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court, over their parents' estates.  The children are the shareholders of a corporation that manages their MLK's estate.  Two children sued a brother for wrongfully taking money from their parents' estates.  The plaintiffs are the Rev. Bernice King and Martin Luther King, III.  They allege that Dexter King took assets from Coretta Scott King's estate and “wrongfully appropriated” money from Martin Luther King's estate.

On September 11, 2009, I attended an all day seminar on estate planning put on by the Arizona Wealthcounsel users group of which I am a member.  Each member of the group was asked for an opinion (guess) about when and what Congress will do to the estate tax exemption amount.  The guesses varied widely. I said I thought that late in 2010, Congress will pass a law that is retroactive to January 1, 2010, that taxes the estates of people who die in 2010 with estates exceeding $1,000,000 and that the $1,000,000 exemption amount scheduled to begin in 2011 will become permanent. TheHill.com has a story today that contains guesses from members of Congress with respect to what Congress will do with the estate

Vanity Fair has a story about the death of a Russian billionaire and the battle over his estate. The sudden death in February 2008 of Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgia’s richest man, rocked the ruthless world of the Russian oligarchy, pitting his widow, Inna, against his partner, exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky, in one of the biggest estate battles ever, and landing an American lawyer in a Belarusian penal colony. Talking to key players in New York and London, the author reports on suspected forgery, secret marriage, and an alleged private-jet kidnapping.

Forbes.com has an interesting article on the importance of estate planning.  The money line is It's not just for the wealthy, and it's more than a will. There's your medical care, insurance and kids to consider.

England's Prince Harry will soon be 25 at which time he will inherit £6.5 million from his mother Diana's estate.  The value of her estate after her death in 1997 was £21 million, but the estate paid more than £8 million in inheritance taxes.

TMZ.com reports that the family of Michael Jackson is interviewing lawyers to represent them in a wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Conrad Murray and others.  One problem for the family, however, is that MJ apparently is worth more dead than alive.

San Francisco Chronicle:  Korbel is the U.S.'s 12th largest winery with $160 million in annual sales.  It's millionaire owner and impoverished daughter are going to trial next month.  Daughter wants $24 million from father.  You can't make this stuff up. Falcon Crest has nothing on Korbel Champagne Cellars these days.  It's all there: The graying scion of a Sonoma County wine empire throwing his daughter off the ancestral grounds. A seamy sex scandal. Vicious legal fighting over multimillion-dollar fortunes. There's even a ritzy horse stable with wild zebras trotting around.

The saga continues.  Billionaire Leona Helmsley created a lot of trouble when she provided in her Will that her Maltese dog “Trouble” was to inherit $12 million in a pet trust.  Why she left the gift in her Will (a public document in a public probate proceeding) instead of in a Trust (a private document not normally subject to court scrutiny) is unknown.  Arizona is one of a few states that allows Arizona trusts to name animals as beneficiaries.  For more on the “Queen of Mean,” her money and post death developments, see Jeffrey Toobin's article in the New Yorker entitled “Rich Bitch – The legal battle over trust funds for pets.”

When a married couple creates an estate plan, they plan for the inevitable – the death of one spouse followed by the death of the second spouse.  The entire estate plan may be designed on this assumption.  However, it is possible that both spouses could die simultaneously in a common accident.  Santa Barbara, California attorney Mark Cornwall discusses the need to plan for simultaneous deaths.  “Spelling out your wishes in a revocable trust can prevent unintended distribution of property.”

Forbes.com has a concise pictorial essay called “In Pictures: 10 Estate Planning Moves To Make Now.”

The Dayton Daily News has a story entitled “Medical mistrust dissuades people from being organ donors.”  The most common reasons people decline to donate are: Desire that their body remain intact after death, Fear that medical personnel might withhold care from identified organ donors, and Religious objections.

Celebrity gossip website tmz.com says it accessed documents that show that Michael “Jackson's net worth was estimated at $1,360,839,979 on July 31, 2007,” but he ‘only' had liquid assets of $668,215 (.05% of his net worth).  TMZ claims Jackson's primary asset was his interest in the Sony-ATV Publishing Trust (including the Beatles music) valued at $1,150,000,000.

As an estate planning attorney, I am always amazed by the things people do or fail to do when it comes to death, property, inheritance and leaving property to their loved ones.  CNN.com has an interesting story on wills entitled “Dogs, Ferrari, strangers — weird stipulations.”  The story summarizes a number of bizarre wills.

Nevada recently adopted a new law that authorizes wills to be stored electronically.  The Nevada Secretary of State will create and maintain a secure on-line registry called the “Nevada Lockbox” where people can upload an electronic copy of their will and retrieve it when needed.  See 2009 Nevada Laws Ch. 253. This is a great idea that all states should adopt.  A common problem after a death is that the family cannot find the deceased's will.  Sometimes the family does not know if the deceased had a will and sometimes the family knows the deceased signed a will, but they cannot find the original or even a copy of the will.  Another common problem is that a stepmother or stepfather refuses to open a probate

A reader asks Wall St. Journal writer Kelly Green the following: My wife and I are both over 65 and are doing some estate planning. Can I transfer funds from a traditional IRA to a trust without immediately being taxed? What would be the tax consequences of making the trust the beneficiary of my IRA? The answer discusses an estate planning device I call an “IRA Inheritance Trust®.”  See my article on this subject called “How Your Family Can Become IRA Millionaires Using an IRA Inheritance Trust® that Protects the Funds from Ex-Spouses, Creditors & Bankruptcy Court.

Wall St. Journal:  ‘Intentionally Defective' Tool Can Protect Depressed Assets From Estate and Gift Taxes.  It may seem hard to come up with a financial product with a name as unattractive as an “intentionally defective grantor trust.” Yet these days, in the world of estate planning, those words denote one sexy vehicle.”  These types of trusts are also called “IDGTs.”

Question:  I created a “gun” trust from a document I got from a national document preparer.  I named myself as trustee of the trust.  Can I now possess the NFA firearm that is registered to the gun trust? Prince Law Offices, P.C. answered this question in a blog post. Answer:  “The answer, generally speaking, is no, unless you have competent legal advice on how to form a trust that would allow the trustee to “use” the assets. What many who use Quicken or other products, instead of seeking competent legal advice, fail to recognize or understand is the purpose of a trust and the fiduciary duties that go along with it. So, first let me explain the purpose of a trust and then speak about the