Trusts & Estates

Attorneys at Dickson Steinacker are well qualified to counsel clients regarding their assets and how to pass them on. There are several points of law which must be considered in setting up a valid will or trust to benefit those you leave behind. To navigate these issues, Dickson Steinacker provides the tools and knowledge necessary to provide the best information for its clients in order to craft an effective estate strategy. The following is a brief description of the most common terms and issues associated with our trusts and estates practice:

Wills

A will is a testamentary document written during the life of the testator (person making the will). It dictates how his or her property will be divided after death. Generally, wills contain provisions bestowing certain goods, or percentages of property (including stocks and bonds) to specific individuals or classes of individuals (like children or grandchildren). A will establishes an executor to manage the deceased’s estate in order to assure the proper distribution of the assets. The requirements for executing wills are detailed and should be adhered to carefully.

Probate

Submitting the will to “probate” is the process which establishes the validity of the will and subsequently administering the estate of the testator pursuant to the dictates or provisions of the will. To initiate the probate, the will must be filed with the court where the deceased person lived. The filing party must also submit a petition to obtain the court’s approval of the will and its admission to probate, along with appointing an executor or personal representative.

Will Contests and Probate Litigation

If an individual believes a will was invalid, or perhaps, the testator’s signature was obtained through undue influence or subterfuge, an interested party can bring a will contest in court. The bases for contesting a will generally relate to a narrow set of circumstances: (1) the competency of the testator at the time of the will signing, (2) whether there was “undue influence” (someone pressuring the testator to sign the will), (3) whether there exists another version of the will or trust, (4) whether the will was made illegally, or contains technical faults, and (5) whether the signature of the will was properly witnessed. These issues are sometimes resolved at a trial, and must be settled before a will can be probated.

Estate and Trust Administration

A trust is created when a person executes a written declaration that not only creates the trust, but outlines specific provisions and conditions upon which it will be administered. Trusts are entities which hold assets for the benefit of a third party or entity. Contained within the declaration of trust are the identifications of the trustee(s) and beneficiaries. For trusts to be valid, they must be funded. The trust creator generally adds assets to the trust. Profits or income, and even portions of the principal (“corpus”), are distributed to the trust beneficiaries according to the terms of the trust. Trusts are sometimes used in lieu of a will, as they can streamline the probate process. The most common trusts are the following: (1) revocable trusts, (2) irrevocable trusts, (3) charitable trusts, (4) testamentary trusts (created in a will), and (5) constructive or resulting trusts (these are court-decreed trusts over property held in expectation of its reclamation by a true owner).

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