Are you about to leave a sizable inheritance to your heirs in West Palm Beach? I bet you are wondering what your heirs will spend that money on. Do you have any guesses? A recent study (in 2012) from Ohio State University looked into just that. Learn what your kids would do with their West Palm Beach inheritance.
If you are concerned about the trustee of your West Palm Beach trust acting improperly listen up. Do you know what an injunction is? You may be entitled to a Court order that halts the trustee from acting without Court permission. Are you entitled to an injunction from the probate court in West Palm Beach? Check out this recent case out of the Texas Court of Appeals to learn more.
Is the probate court in West Palm Beach telling you that probate is over and you know its not? If you still have an interest to be adjudicated in the probate of a will in West Palm Beach listen up. A recent case out of the Third District Court of Appeal shows how to use a petition for subsequent administration to protect your rights in probate.
Mr. Pankauski is the Firm’s Managing Member and a Senior Trial Attorney. He is rated AV®Preeminent by independent legal authority Martindale Hubbell. Mr. Pankauski’s AV®Preeminent ranking is the highest rating available and means that his peers, lawyers and judges rank him at the top for professional excellence based upon legal knowledge, analytical capabilities, judgment, communications and legal experience. He has been selected as one of South Florida’s “Top Lawyers” in the field of trusts & estates (Legal Leaders, 2015). Mr. Pankauski was also selected as a “Super Lawyer” in 2022 by his peers. He spends most of his time in the courtroom trying cases and in evidentiary hearings. When he is not in the court room, he devotes considerable time to detailed trial preparation & intense litigation strategy, including high level, high dollar negotiations on behalf of clients. His practice is restricted to “probate litigation”: disputes, controversies, litigation & lawsuits involving wills, trusts, estates, inheritances and guardianships. His extensive experience involves litigating over jewelry, joint bank accounts, lifetime gifts, family owned businesses, real estate, inter-vivos transfers, Florida Homestead, beneficiary rights to trusts & estates, and rights of surviving spouses. Mr. Pankauski’s, and the firm’s, practice also includes defending Florida trustees and Personal Representatives of Palm Beach estates, and advocating on behalf of family members and spouses in litigated family guardianships. Some of the legal issues which he has been involved in include: Palm Beach will contests, undue influence, lack of mental capacity, insane delusion, Dementia, rights of family members & heirs, […]
Were you estranged from one or both birth parents growing up but now want to inherit under the estate in West Palm Beach? You may have problems establishing heirship but do you know what that means? Check out this recent case out of Texas to learn more about your local probate in West Palm Beach.
If you were lucky enough to see money from an inheritance this year pay attention. Do you understand the tax implications for estate and generation skipping taxes? The personal representative of the estate of a U.S. citizen may be required to file a Form 706. How can you be sure?
Are you considering amending your estate plan in West Palm Beach? Have you weighed the pros and cons of including different trusts to your plan? Various things like real estate trusts, spendthrift trusts and special needs trusts may offer protections you want. Protections that a Last Will and Testament just cannot provide. What do these different trusts do in West Palm Beach?
Did you hire a budget rate or inexperienced probate attorney to help you as personal representative? What are you going to do in the event of malpractice after all the inheritance is dispersed? What about malpractice dating back to the actual estate planning? Did you know that you still might be able to sue? You may want to begin by understanding the basics, like what is malpractice in West Palm Beach?
If you are the beneficiary of a Florida estate or trust, or perhaps you were cut out of a Palm Beach probate and you want to file a Florida will contest or object to the Florida will. Chances are, unless you are millionaire, that you want a probate litigation law firm Florida to consider taking your probate case on a contingency fee. Well, when is an understanding to pay for legal fees NOT acontingency fee? Palm Beach’s appeals court dealt with this issue in a recent case. The October 7, 2015 legal opinion from Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal in the case of Wright v. Guy Yudin & Foster LLP can be read for free at this link:http://www.4dca.org/opinions/Oct.%202015/10-7-15/opinions%20released.shtml.
If you are the beneficiary of a Florida trust, you have more rights than perhaps you realize. You may be an adult child of a parent who had accumulated a modest ($2Million – $5 Million) estate in Florida, and left the estate in trust for your benefit, and also the benefit of your parent’s latest spouse. What should you, as a trust beneficiary, know about Florida trusts and your rights? In Florida, most people have a basic estate plan which includes a revocable trust, also called a living trust. Often, parents use a revocable living trust to leave money & property to their spouse, husband or wife, and then, after the spouse or widow dies, on to the adult children or heirs at law. In other words, as an adult child or heir, your inheritance from your parent may not be outright to you, it may be in trust. And you may not receive your inheritance until years afterthat parent passes away: after the passing of the widow or surviving spouse. Many times, the Florida trust may be for so called second or split families: your parent’s widow or spouse is a2nd or 3rd spouse, and you, the trust creator’s children, are adult children from a prior marriage or relationship. In other words, the trust first operates for your parent’s latest husband or wife, who is not your parent. When the creator of the trust, called the grantor or the settlor, (in our example, your parent) passes away, the trust becomes irrevocable and may often be referred to as a family trust or a […]