A resource for lawyers and the public in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for information on will contests, trust disputes, guardianships, conservatorships, elder exploitation, fiduciary duty claims, and other probate litigation disputes.
Counsel, please send us your court orders and pleadings of potential interest to the bar. We will link any posting to your website and give you full credit. Please tell us how we can improve this site to better serve you, other lawyers, and the public.
In Heyn v. Director of Medicaid, the Massachusetts Appeals Court in an April 15, 2016 decision considered whether provisions in a self-settled trust rendered it a “countable asset” for Medicaid eligibility. The trust mandated distributions of income to the settlor and authorized the trustee to sell assets for fair value and “to determine, in accordance with reasonable accounting principles […]
Both the NH and MA Probate Courts are vested with exclusive jurisdiction over the composition of their probate estates. What happens when this grant of exclusive jurisdiction is in conflict with the rights of a foreign court to decide title to property claimed by a NH or MA probate estate? We represent the Trustee of a California trust […]
In Ambeliotis v. Brown, 33 Mass.L.Rptr. No. 7 138 (January 25, 2016), the Court ruled that the plaintiff trust beneficiary must pursue her breach of fiduciary duty claims against the trustees in arbitration, even though she was not a signatory of and claimed not to have been informed about or consented to the agreement providing […]
PROBATE LITIGATION LESSONS FOR THE ESTATE PLANNER Updated January 2016 Introduction Due to a variety of demographic changes (we live longer, get divorced more, and have more wealth), the incidence of estate plan challenges has been on the rise. The most common litigation scenarios involve a child opposing a plan preferentially benefiting another child, a […]
In the wrong hands, a power of attorney is a license to steal. It is usually released to a child when dad or mom is impaired and unable to manage his or her affairs. The POA typically grants carte blanche control of the parent’s finances and is a ripe invitation for abuse. Indeed, almost every […]
