There is a great article in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com, about marrying family wealth.  At our West Palm Beach probate law firm, we deal with a number of Palm Beach family trusts and there is inevitably an in-law or outlaw who is new to money.   How heirs and beneficiaries deal with family wealth in Palm Beach is one thing…..how their boyfriends, girlfriends, 2nd and 3rd husbands and wives deal with your Palm Beach estate plan is another. Be careful and thoughtful when creating your Palm Beach trust or estate plan. 

Did you create family wealth and now have this idea of creating a massive Palm Beach family trust?  Hold on….. creating wealth or a Palm Beach trust may not be the difficult part.  How your kids and grand kids view that Palm Beach trust may be a challenge.  Consider incentive trusts so that you pass along more than just $$$ to your generations….pass along your VALUES.  Check out this Amy Feldman article on incentive trusts in this week’s Penta insert of Barron’s.  www.barrons.com  God knows that our Palm Beach trust litigation law firm has seen a lot of slacker beneficiaries and trust lawsuits over Palm Beach trust money.

Having lived in West Palm Beach for almost 20 years now, I am often asked by friends from Boston and the northeast if the real estate market is coming back.   As the senior trial lawyer for a West Palm Beach probate litigation law firm, I get to see my fair share of trust investments, and investment loss clients, some of which involved Palm Beach real estate.  Here are my thoughts on Palm Beach real estate, the market, and what Palm Beach Trustee may want to know.

If you are involved in issues of family wealth, check out this week’s Barron’s.  www.barrons.com.   The quarterly Penta insert on wealth, estate planning, family money and how to manage all that is available right now at newstands and online.  I’ve been subscribing for a while.  It also has an excellent article about family trusts and creating incentives to get trust $$$ from that family wealth.

On June 3rd, the American Bar Association will offer an online seminar about estate trials & probate trials regarding undue influence.  Palm Beach probate litigator John Pankauski was asked to lead a panel of probate litigators from across the country, to develop the topics and offer this unique insight into will contests, gifts of family wealth and estate lawsuits.  Pankauski is joined on the panel by two highly regarded probate litigators from New Jersey.  The seminar is intended for probate lawyers and those that handle estate litigation from all over the country.  The seminar is titled:  Trying an Undue Influence Case.  Pankauski noted that much of the work which he completes from his West Palm Beach probate litigation law firm office will be of interest to the national audience.

If you deal with wealthy Palm Beachers or retired executives who move to Palm Beach Gardens or Jupiter, you may want to subscribe to Barron’s financial publication. www.barrons.com.   Each quarter, Barrons has a piece on family wealth, called Penta.  Penta deals with personal & financial issues for families with money.  So, if you are a Palm Beach probate lawyer who has an estate planning practice, or are a CPA or wealth advisor on PGA Blvd or Royal Palm Way, you may want to check out Barron’s.   If nothing else, I’m sure that your Palm Beach beneficiaries, clients and heirs will appreciate a copy of recent articles.  Many include topics about estate planning, wills, trusts, succession planning and dealing with transferring family wealth.  …. something a lot of Palm Beach clients can use insight on.

Palm Beach estates are interesting enough and God knows that probate litigation is very interesting here in our boutique West Palm Beach probate litigation firm.  But check out yesterday’s (May 15, 2014) article in the Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com.  The Journal article involves a deathbed will, an estate of priceless art and one’s desire to try to get it to a museum.   Our Palm Beach probates have involved deathbed wills and Florida wills signed right before death.  But this Wall Street Journal article is quite a story. http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-arts-movies-music.html  

A 2 day will contest trial set for May 19 and 20th in the Delray Beach Probate Court has been postponed.  Heirs were attacking a will of a wealthy woman from Boca Raton who left all her money to charity.  I pushed the will challenge case to trial, and survived three attempts by other probate lawyers in Delray Beach Probate Court to delay…..until the last one.

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA —  The Pankauski Law Firm PLLC won a trial on attorneys fees and a Florida charging lien this past Monday, in the downtown Probate Court in West Palm Beach, Florida.   For more on charging liens and attorneys fees, please read on.