Estates increasingly include assets that pass to the owner’s heirs outside the probate process through use of beneficiary designations. With the expanded use of this approach come a myriad of issues and a growing number of court cases involving ben…
Read More
The dramatic increase in hospitalizations due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) has many unanticipated complications. Family disagreements about medical treatment for a loved one are not unusual. For some families, differences among family members about…
Read More
A specific Minnesota statutory provision governs any court challenge to a revocable trust based on lack of capacity of the settlor. In a November 2018 decision, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reviewed the statutory standard and the prior court cases…
Read More
In a bankruptcy case, the trustee has authority to recover payments made to creditors within a specific period preceding the bankruptcy. Trustee claims of this type are called preferences or avoidable preferences. A creditor who receives a preference…
Read More
Bankruptcy is a court-supervised procedure through which the petitioner asks for debt to be alleviated. If all goes well, the bankruptcy court’s discharge order alleviates the debt. The bankruptcy case itself is not litigation. However, bankruptcy…
Read More
The Minnesota Probate Code prevents a spouse from unilaterally disinheriting his or her spouse (intentionally or accidentally), by providing a surviving spouse with the ability to exercise the right to an elective share of a deceased spouse’s estat…
Read More
In some bankruptcy cases, issues arise that are not directly related to the bankruptcy but must be resolved before the bankruptcy court can finalize the bankruptcy case itself. When that situation occurs, the legal distinction between core proceeding…
Read More
A spendthrift provision in a trust restricts a beneficiary’s ability to transfer trust assets. It also prevents creditors from reaching the property of the trust to repay the beneficiary’s debts. Not surprisingly, beneficiaries and creditors ofte…
Read More
When administration of a trust does not go smoothly, the trust may end up in litigation. In court cases involving a trust, a common question concerns whether the trustee (or the other party) can recover attorney’s fees in trust litigation. Early in…
Read More
In some bankruptcy cases, issues arise that require a bankruptcy court proceeding separate from the bankruptcy itself. These actions, called adversary proceedings, are a type of bankruptcy litigation. They take place as an independent legal action wi…
Read More
© 2020 Dave Burns Law Office, LLC
View Our Disclaimer
Law Firm Website Design by The Modern Firm
