Hey Florida trustees:   thinking of investing trust assets in that IPO, hedge fund, alternative investment or maybe some privately held interests you have access to?  Florida trustees, and fiduciaries, should consider a recent New York Times article by best selling author Nick Bilton before investing trust funds.

As Florida probate & guardianship have grappled with the right to die, so, too, has Europe. At the end of June, the Financial Times provided an interesting perspective on two issues which Europe is grappling with: 1) letting someone make health care decisions for you if you can’t, and     2)  also assisted suicide. Florida does not permit assisted suicide or euthanasia. Florida does have a number of probate laws regarding health care documents.

LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was in court testifying about his Family Trust and the sale of the LA Clippers, evidently by his wife, Ms. Sterling, who is the Family Trust Trustee. According to published reports:  “Ms. Sterling says she has the right to sell the team without her husband because he is no longer mentally capable of acting as a trustee. Mr. Sterling denied that in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday, insisting that doctors at the Cleveland Clinic told him he was “razor sharp.” “

Florida is not the only state where families fight over trusts, billions of $$  and  whether someone is incompetent or not to handle one’s business affairs — or run a family trust.

A recent New York Times, www.nytimes.com,  in the business section, had a great article on divorce & your retirement accounts As many of you who have read my Florida probate blog know, I’ve written, and spoken, a lot about death, probate & divorce. This New York Times article focusses on divorce and your retirement account. Why is this important?

An interesting article on probate & artwork in the recent issue of Penta, published by Barron’s, www.barrons.com. Q:  What do you do with artwork that creates a taxable estate? Q:  How will you plan your estate and do you have a plan to pay your estate tax?

If you are a trustee, you are charged with investing trust assets.  A recent setback for a well known cupcake company serves as a lesson on investments for trustees.   Florida trustees should learn from this recent business development:  how a business can crumble and –remember– that the trust money which you invest wrongly can end up being not that sweet at all.

Beneficiaries of estates and trusts, and your parents’ wealth (!), may wish to consider attending this American Bar Association Course on retirement accounts and inheritances. There are trillions of inheritance dollars in retirement accounts Learning, and knowing, how you inherit an IRA, 401(k) or other retirement account is important Many times, there is probate litigation in Florida over the beneficiary designation. Consider attending this webinar and learning more about inheritances and retirements The webinar is July 9th.

A June 18, 2014 Florida business lawsuit made its way to the Palm Beach Appeals Court.  Anyone who is a co-owner of a Florida business, or has inherited an interest in a private business such as Florida limited liability company may want to read this opinion.

Florida Guardianship Law is slowly getting bigger, slowly increasing, with new  cases, an evolving line of precedent and statutes which are regularly addressed when the Florida Probate Code may need to be improved or tweaked by legislative committees.   Here is a new, just-published guardianship law opinion from Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal.  If you are involved in a Florida guardianship or an incapacity hearing, you may want to read it.