Death and Taxes - The Blog

Ken Lay's Bequest

The Onion has its take on the Ken Lay - Enron debacle in this article, entitled "Ken Lay's Children Inherit 4,000 Pensions."  An excerpt:

"We were surprised and deeply moved that Dad had arrangements in place to provide for us after his passing," said the mogul's son, Mark Lay. "With his unbelievably generous legacy, we'll never have to worry about money again, unlike a lot of people here in Houston."

The younger Lay said that, as youths, he and his siblings were taught by their father to take an interest in the business he built and defrauded, and never to forget where their wealth came from.

...

In addition to providing for the financial security of his family, Lay stipulated in his will that a large part of his embezzled fortune be donated to the many charities he and his wife Linda supported, including the Houston YMCA, where many former Enron employees now reside.

Fun with Caselaw

I was reviewing the Illinois Law Update section of this month's Illinois Bar Journal when I came across this classic case headline:

Campground operator has no duty to warn of naturally accumulating walnuts

The downside of working only in the estate planning and probate arenas is that I don't get to flex my knowledge about other areas of law.  (Actually, the downside is that I don't know anything about other areas of law.)  Now this problem is solved!

The Onion on Personal Property Disputes

Disputes over a decedent's personal property are fairly common.  Now The Onion is weighing in with its own humorous take on the issue:

Grandmother Will Live On In Arguments Over Her Wedding China

John Hodgman on Negotiation

John Hodgman, a contributor to NPR's "This American Life," has written a book entitled The Areas of My Expertise.  Mr. Hodgman claims the book is the successor to works like Poor Richard's Almanack, but the big differences are that (1) nothing in the book appears to be true and (2) Mr. Hodgman's areas of expertise include werewolves, hoboes (including a list of 700 potential hobo names), and "History's Worst Men's Haircuts."  One of my favorite sections of the book includes Mr. Hodgman's "Five Secrets of Successful Negotiation" -- number 4 is a keeper:

A bestselling author on the subject of "negotiation" reminds: "Negotiation requires compromise.  Each party must gain something, and each must give something up.  Before you begin your negotiation, privately consider what you are willing to give away.  Now gather all of that material together and put it in a sack.  Hide the sack in a secure location, such as a cave that is laced with explosives that you can detonate by remote control.  Take the remote control in with you to the negotiation.  As any experience negotiator knows, in order to succeed, you must be willing to walk away from the deal at any moment, and then blow up the cave.  Note: The sack should be made of velvet."

Lawyer Fun

Before I head off for the holidays, I wanted to share two quick items:

1. Evidently, Britney Spears is suing US Weekly for $20 million over their allegation that Ms. Spears and her husband, Kevin Federline, "feared the release of a secret sex tape, which they had viewed with their estate planning lawyers."  ABC News has the story here.  I think Ms. Spears has a good case -- in my experience, estate planning lawyers are rarely called in to view secret sex tapes.

2. Last night's episode of "Arrested Development" featured an appearance by Scott Baio as attorney Bob Loblaw.  In the episode, we learned that Mr. Loblaw also has his own website, known as (what else?) The Bob Loblaw Law Blog.

Grieving "Peanuts" and Estate Planning

It's great to see big companies putting estate planning information on the internet.  However, Christopher Bahn from The Onion's AV Club Blog makes a pretty funny observation:

[H]ere's my all-time favorite official Peanuts tie-in: Charlie Brown and his friends are the corporate mascots of Metropolitan Life Insurance, and their images are festooned all over the company's website—which leads to this unintentionally bizarre and disquieting juxtaposition. Who do you suppose he's grieving for? Based on the available evidence, possibly Sally.

"Fear Factor" Creator's Will (Satire)

Clients will occasionally try to use Wills and trusts to control the behavior of their beneficiaries.  For instance, a beneficiary might receive trust funds only if he or she completes regular drug testing. 

Today's issue of The Onion addresses this topic in the newspaper's own satirical manner, with this article.  The title says it all:

Fear Factor Creator's Will: 'Heirs Must Eat My Ashes To Collect Inheritance'

The Case of the Grand Send-off

Ruth Morrow of Bedford, Iowa was a former bookkeeper.  A widow with no children, she left her $1 million estate to a number of charitable beneficiaries.

As I've discussed before, the administration of a probate estate follows a certain order -- debts and expenses are paid, and then (finally) distribution is made to the beneficiaries.  In Mrs. Morrow's estate, things got interesting at the "debts and expenses" stage, when...

"Two nieces, who inherited nothing, but were among the 83-year-old Morrow's few surviving relatives, decided on a grand send-off. They would buy a $51,000 solid-bronze casket, fly it to California, pay a local funeral director to escort it, and bury Aunt Ruth in a famous Hollywood Hills cemetery where Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Telly Savalas, Liberace and other stars are buried. The price for the November funeral was $64,089.76. The average cost of an Iowa funeral is $8,514."

All heck broke loose when the nieces sought payment of the funeral bill -- the executor refused, and asked the probate court to decide whether the expense was justified.  (The charities, whose share of the estate will be reduced if the bill is paid, say it wasn't.)  Was Mrs. Morrow a spendthrift who wanted all of her money to pass to charity or a showbiz type who longed to be buried near Kojak  and Mr. Showmanship?  A judge will decide.

Appraising a Haunted House

It's often said that appraisals are an art, not a science.  But, as this article (from the always interesting REALTYgram Blogger) indicates, certain appraisals may in fact be a science, and that science may be parapsychology. 

The Lighter Side of Tax Excuses

When it comes to creating a defense to the charge of tax evasion, I don't know which excuse is worse:

• A variation on the Steve Martin bit about forgetting to pay your taxes (see the case detailed here); or
• Richard Hatch's "I thought CBS was withholding taxes from my winnings check" defense (discussed here)?