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By Fred Franke Franke Beckett LLC As anticipated, a relatively new federal estate tax benefit has generated litigation among family members in the state courts. The “portability” election that permits a surviving spouse to carry forward the deceased spouse’s unused federal estate tax exclusion amount is a powerful tool for married couples with federal estate […]

By Fred Franke Franke Beckett LLC A recent Court of Special Appeals case, Shump v. Wannall, 2016 W.L. 588, 572-9 (10/4/16)(unreported), addressed whether a pour-over will is effective if the inter vivos trust comes into existence several weeks after the will is executed. The answer is no. Maryland Estates & Trusts Art. § 4-411 provides […]

ANTI-LAPSE MEANS ANTI-LAPSE By Fred Franke Franke Beckett LLC A recent Court of Special Appeals case held that the anti-lapse statute means what it says.   The case was not reported, perhaps because it broke no new ground.

POST-MORTEM DIVORCE IN MARYLAND By Fred Franke Franke Beckett LLC Recently the Court of Special Appeals held that the personal representative could not bring suit to annul the decedent’s marriage based on fraud.   Morris v. Goodwin, ___ Md.App. ___, 2016 W.L. 6248538 (10/26/16). In Morris, the allegation was that a U.S. Army staff sergeant […]

By Fred Franke, Franke Beckett LLC The Court of Appeals decided a child custody case arising out of a divorce action that will have reverberations in the law of estates and trusts. In Conover v. Conover, 2016 W.L. 3633062 (July 7, 2016), the Court of Appeals held that Maryland recognizes de facto parenthood. In doing […]

A core element of Maryland asset protection planning for married couples is holding the property as tenants by the entirety. A judgment against either the husband or the wife does not attach to the judgment debtor’s interest in entirety property. Hertz v. Mills, 166 Md. 492 (1934). A principal aspect of tenants by the entirety […]

Once again this year, the General Assembly seeks to enact a bill to permit fiduciaries access to digital assets. The earlier effort was based on the original Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act drafted in July 2014 (“UFADAA”). This initial effort sought to place the fiduciary in the shoes of the accountholder for all […]

Franke Beckett LLC Seldom do criminal cases help us understand the laws governing estates and trusts. Yet Wagner v. State, 445 Md. 404 (12/17/15) is one of those rare cases. In Wagner, a father added his daughter as a “joint owner” of a multi-party account. The daughter also enjoyed a right of survivorship in the […]

Franke Beckett LLC OPENING THE DOOR TO EVIDENCE The Dead Man’s Statute is a carryover from the ancient prohibition against persons with an interest in a transaction from being witnesses in litigation over that transaction. In the case with the Dead Man’s Statute, one party to the transaction is silenced by death so (goes the […]

A recent Maryland tax court case increased a widow’s death taxes by over $400,000 because she relocated from Michigan to Maryland after her husband’s death and was the beneficiary of a QTIP ¹ trust created in Michigan. The facts in Taylor v. Comptroller, 2015 WL 530 5936 (Md. Tax)(9/3/15), are simple: prior to Mr. Taylor’s […]

Estates & Trusts § 1-208(b) provides a rule to determine the paternity of a child born to unmarried parents. The statute declares that the child is the child of the mother but is considered the child of the father if certain circumstances exist. One such circumstance is if the purported father subsequently marries the mother […]

By Fred Franke Franke Beckett LLC Maryland courts and commentators traditionally recommend against joint wills. Shimp v. Shimp, 287 Md. 372 (1980) (Footnote 1: “… (joint wills) are more apt to invite litigation than separate independent reciprocal wills.”) Indeed, the Court of Appeals hoped that its decision, “will discourage the use of such wills.” (“Shimp […]