Florida Probate Attorney and Florida Inheritance Lawyer Florida Probate Attorney Blog

Oldest people ever and currently

Interesting link from Wikipedia that lists the oldest woman, men to ever live and which have been verified and which are disputed then also lists the oldest current living people for the information click Here

Some of the interesting highlights of the 10 oldest people ever 9 of them are woman. The only guy to make the list has not been verified and is a disputed issue whether he made it to 120 years and 237 days which would make him the 2nd oldest person ever and one of only two people to have lived over 120 years with the oldest person ever. The oldest person ever was a woman from France who lived to be 122 years and 137 days. 

That stat is identical with the current oldest people 9 of the 10 oldest currently are woman with those varying only slightly with all being 113 to 114 years old. The oldest person currently resides in Japan. 

For Both the oldest people ever and the currently oldest people of the top 10 4 of them are from the US. Three of them are from Japan and the remainder from other countries. Interestingly China does not have anybody on either list with as many people as live there. The oldest person ever died in France. 

As an amusing note when I was completing a Master of Laws in Estate Planning in Florida one of the professors mentioned that the woman had purchased an annuity when she was around 85 that would pay her a certain sum of money for the remainder of her lifetime but then stop upon her death and was able to get a great rate given her advanced age then continued to live around 35+ years. 

On a side note it would be interesting to know of those who were over 100 what percentage had Alzheimer's or other similar problems and how many had prepared or revised estate planning documents at such advanced age. 

Michael Jackson Probate Update - Odd claims disputed

The Attorneys for the Michael Jackson Probate case rejected some strange claims. TMZ.com reported that the estate disputes the validity of several claims some of which are just odd and the claimants lack standing to bring. 

Among them include "A pissed off private citizen" who wants the estate to reimburse the city of LA to be reimbursed $3.3 million of dollars for his funeral memorial. 

A woman seeking $2 million for her home schooling services. 

A woman who claimed to be his wife and wanted custody of the children who they told to get lost. 

An additional woman is demanding $50 million because she claims that Michael Jackson wiretapped her phone and had organized criminals watching her. She was also told to get lost. 

The full article can be viewed by clicking here. 

Although this is a California case in Florida the procedure for creditor claims is that following the appointment as personal representative the PR or their Florida Probate Attorney on their behalf would publish notice to creditors in a publication authorized to publish legal notices. It would run once a week for two consecutive weeks. Any creditors which are not known or reasonably ascertainable then would be required to file creditor claims against the estate within 3 month period of publication. If they were it is the greater of 3 months or 30 days after service of notice to them but in no case no longer than 2 years after the date of death. If a claim is filed within the time the estate then has the greater of 30 days after service or 4 months after initial publication of notice to dispute it in which case they can deny any liability as was done with the above claims or agree that something is owed but indicate it should be only x amount. If the claim is denied then an independent action must be taken by the person filing the claim. That would be to bring a lawsuit in probate court. A probate litigation attorney could seek to assist the estate in defending the claim which is felt unjustified. If the lawsuit against the estate is not filed then the claim is considered abandoned. 

The deadlines and probate process rules are important to be followed or the case can be lost. In Florida there are no creditor claims after two years under any situation unless a claim has been timely filed. The Florida statutes regarding Creditor Claims can be found by clicking here.

Highest earning couples

Video of Five Highest Earning celebrity couples for this year

The list started at $46 million with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie earning $55 million and placing third, Harrison Ford making $65 for the latest Indiana Jones movie finished at $69 million with his wife who earned $4 million for her tv show Brothers and Sisters and the top spot was singers Beyonce and Jay Z. 

Market volatility reduced with staying in the stock market

Heritage Investment Group has written about the market volatility over the past few years in an interesting note. Essentially as I view the note it with proper diversification and long term investing people will be fine and viewed over a longer time horizon there is far less volatility then trying to move in and out of the market.  

Craig Chuang a portfolio manager with their company had emailed the client and advisor update.

 

Among their main findings

Market performance over the past two years has been extreme by historical standards. In 2008, U.S. stocks experienced their second-worst calendar return in eighty-four years. Then, in 2009, stocks rebounded strongly to deliver a return in the top quartile of the historical distribution.

· Over the long term, the market’s positive return years have outnumbered the negative return years. Since 1926, the market has experienced a positive return in almost three-quarters of the calendar years.

· The sequence of calendar returns appears random, suggesting that accurately predicting future performance is a difficult task for any investor or professional manager.

Over time, the market has rewarded investors who can bear the risk of stocks and stay committed through various periods of good and bad performance. Recent years are no exception.

Market performance over the past two years has been extreme by historical standards. In 2008, U.S. stocks experienced their second-worst calendar return in eighty-four years. Then, in 2009, stocks rebounded strongly to deliver a return in the top quartile of the historical distribution.

· Over the long term, the market’s positive return years have outnumbered the negative return years. Since 1926, the market has experienced a positive return in almost three-quarters of the calendar years. 62 Positive Years and 22 Negative ones.

· The sequence of calendar returns appears random, suggesting that accurately predicting future performance is a difficult task for any investor or professional manager.

Over time, the market has rewarded investors who can bear the risk of stocks and stay committed through various periods of good and bad performance. Recent years are no exception. The link to the chart Heritage Investment prepared can be viewed by clicking here.

 

 

Average American needs to work 99 days to pay IRS

As CNN mentions Tax Freedom day 2010 is a theoretical day at which if the worker had worked 7 days a week and did not spend any money would have made enough to pay the IRS for the year. The national tax freedom day for 2010 is 99 days after the start of the year or April 9. It is one day shorter than last year and has declined each year since 2007 given the recession causing less incomes and certain tax provisions were lower or abolished for this year. 

More people spend more on taxes than on their food, clothing and shelter combined. Around 30.8% of income goes to pay various taxes each year. 

In a similar sense as the tax freedom day it would take most people 35 days of work to pay for food, 13 days to pay for clothing and 60 days to pay for housing. Hopefully something can be done to lower the 50 days that it takes to pay for health care and medical treatments each year. Additionally it takes 21days to pay for recreation and 29 days to pay for transportation. 

The tax freedom date is calculated for each state. Florida has a tax freedom day a few days before the national average given its lack of an income tax. Just 19 states have a shorter period and just 3 states have an overall lower tax burden. Florida is one of just 7 states with no income tax. The Florida tax freedom date is April 5. 

The states with the shortest are Alaska which also has no income tax and Louisiana which has low incomes. They have a tax freedom date of March 26 for this year. While Connecticut the state with the highest per capita income is the last with their date being April 27. It takes their residents 117 days to pay the taxes they owe. 

LA Dodgers owner earned $108 million owed no tax 2004-2009

As AOL News point out Frank and Jamie Mccourt earned $108 million from 2004 to 2009 and did not owe any income taxes given all the deductions they were allowed to take. 

As it also points out it helps prove the F Scott Fitzgerald saying that the rich are different than you and me. I think it also helps to push for the idea of a flat tax. Does not seem to be right that people can earn that much money and skip tax liability entirely while many people making considerably less have to pay thousands. 

Virginia Lottery Winner waited 5 months to come forward to meet with attorney and financial advisor

As AOL News reports Virginia man working as a carpenter who never had a lot of money but won a lottery jackpot worth up to $200 million decided to keep his winning a secret and did not come forward for 5 months until he was able to be advised by an estate planning attorney and financial advisor.

The winner, Steve Williams, announced that he will continue at his same job as a carpenter after winning the 2nd largest lottery amount in Virginia history.

Based on the time value of money he decided to accept $125 million dollar cash payout now instead of having taken $200 million spread out over 26 years. After taxes his payout will be around $88.9.

Will Contest - Undue Influence and lack of capacity alleged in change of Billionaire Melvin Simon's estate and trust.

Melvin Simon was around the top 300 richest people in the Forbes 400 (# 278 when he was 79 years old). He died around 82 years of age. His estate was worth around $1.3 billion dollars.  

Dana Hunsinger of the Indystar.com provided an update of the probate and trust litigation. The judge dismissed part of the case in which his daughter Deborah Simon stated fraud as the claim but was not specific enough in nature. It is allowed it to be refiled. The Probate court Judge failed to dismiss the estate dispute claims against her stepmom Bren Simon which argued undue influence and lack of mental capacity.

While I am not familar with Indiana Probate case law or statutes in Florida can't really merely rely on presumptions to prove an undue influence case against a spouse however she appears to be seeking to prove it directly and using evidence of lack of capacity or diminished capacity.

She indicates that not only were the documents changed just months before he died and was a significant change from prior wills which then gave her stepmom hundreds of millions more while vastly reducing what was going to charity or to herself and her siblings she also indicated that her father Billionaire Mel Simon was suffering from significant neurological problems at the time which impaired his memory, understanding and communication. It is undisputed that he had difficulty even signing the documents although his spouse Bren says that is from Parkinsons and that he signed freely, voluntarily and knowingly.

As I tell clients who inquire about Florida Probate Litigation Information a person can leave there property to anybody they want for any reason they want. However, that is subject to them having mental capacity and there not being evidence of undue influence that they were coerced into doing so and the result was the other persons influence and not their own. The article does not provide many details of undue influence although based on the time line and the capacity issue along with the large change in disposition it seems questionable that he even formed an intent to change the document and undue influence is often combined with diminished capacity which was clearly present here so this will be an interest case to see where it goes. When discussing a potential challenge to contest a will or trust and dispute the intent I do like to see some of the facts that Deborah appears to have here he had a previous plan which she was provided significantly more for, then there is the alegation of significant neuroglogical problems and he was not even able to sign and he was somewhat elderly as well as died just months after signing the document so the timeline looks good. The facts will need to be established to prove the case though was it his intent to provide more for his spouse and did he know what he was doing and act voluntarily will ultimately decide the issue. However with this much money involved and a reasonably good timeline but with it being the spouse and difficult to win unless they can do so on the capacity issue or have direct facts proving undue influence they should settle it would seem in both sides best interests. While sometimes principle is important and it may be worth fighting until the end in a case like this both sides can be sufficiently provided for in a settlement and factoring in the time and saved expense in court costs and attorneys fees it may be a smart move. Anna Nicole Smith estate suing the estate of her deceased billionaire husband and opposed by the estate of his son shows how extended cases of this size can become if each side has a fight to the death mentality. All the initial participants literally did in that case and it is still going on after 15+ years and numerous appearances in multiple different types of courts. She has been awarded $474.5 million around around 89 million and most recently nothing but her side has said they may seek to be heard a second time by the US Supreme Court on a different issue.

On a final note back to the Melvin Simon case it is best that his daughter brings the challenge regarding lack of capacity or diminished capacity and potential undue influence since frequently talking with and seeing her father she could likely present any facts which existed to the court more easily than a charity who may not have had much contact with him. However if a representative of the charity were to know of his condition at the time of execution and chose to join the suit they would be an interested party given the millions of dollars less they would be receiving under the revised will and trust.

Personal Representatives of Michael Jackson Probate sign $250 Million record deal.

The Probate estate of Michael Jackson has been an interesting case with numerous instances of probate litigation, creditor claims some legitimate and some mere strange but with his longtime attorney and now a Personal Representative of his estate and Trustee of his trust setup a record $250 million dollar deal with Sony. Some of the highlights include

10 records over 7 years from songs that he had not released and some songs repackaged.

Rights extended for his songs. Sony was set to lose rights to some songs in 2015 but will now have the rights until at least 2017.

The $250 million that they are expecting to receive is especially impressive given that US album sales have falen 52% in the past decade as the Wall Street Journal reports.

Even during the prime CD sale years deals in the tens of millions and higher were rare.

The estate is making a fortune now though with 31 million albums sold since his death.

This agreement and the money the estate is generating will allow the estate to pay off $125 million in debt by the end of the year including $35 million to AEG concert promoter who was going to handle the This is it concert and finance another $325 million in debt. As the article points out as tragic as his death was from an emotional standpoint and on a personal level it was a helpful thing for his family on a financial level. He had been spending more than he was making and headed towards problems but now the estate has a surge of income without his absurdly expensive lifestyle.

As this $250 Million dollar deal shows he will likely be similar to the Elvis Presley estate in generating tens of millions or more for a very long time.

$178,000 in attorney fees requested in Michael Jackson estate dispute.

As TMZ reports in this article there is now a battle and further estate disputes in the probate of Michael Jackson Debbie Rowe's attorney is seeking to be paid nearly $178,000 for his legal fees during the guardianship appointment on behalf of the estate. He contends that estate attorney Howard Weitzman had promised the estate would pay his legal fees directly as it was beneficial to the estate when she reached an agreement with the Jackson family regarding visitation and guardianship issues. Attorney Weitzman however said that while he had discussions with them that no agreement was reached. The common sense conclusion is that when discussing who will pay a bill of a couple hundred thousand dollars that should obviously be put in writing to confirm the agreement. Especially when there is a potential estate dispute so this does not happen it is an important issue.

Space Travel popular and soon a reality

Although it will remain limited to those with substantial amounts of money who are able to experience the travel anytime in the near future CNN reported that space travel for regular people to buy tickets for will occur soon. A maiden test flight for Richard Branson's company Virgin Galatic and its vehicle the VSS Enterprise was recently successful. It is a 60 foot rocket plane. The business plan is to start with just one flight per week with 6 people who will pay at least $200,000 to travel to space about 60,000 feet into the air. Those who travel will train for 3 days in advance. If that schedule were to be kept there would only be room for 300 people in the first year. However, incredibly despite the $200,000+ price tag per flight lasting just a matter of hours and only 300 people expected to take the first flight in its first full year of operation there are 80,000 people on the wait list. There will be further testing this year and next then they hope to begin the actual flights. They further hope to allow hundreds of thousands of people to eventually be able to afford Star Trek type traveling in space.  

Twins who are 63 days apart in age.

An interesting video from CNN of an unusual set of twins with one being born premature they are separated by over two months in age.

Video of Twins who were born 63 days apart

New York List of Biggest Tax Law cheats - Bernie Madoff owes nearly Million

As reported on Msn.com New York has recently published a list of the 250 top tax cheats and Bernie Madoff was # 68 on the list owing $984,280. At the top of the list was the former owner of Scores, Irving Bilzinsky, a New York strip club which is no longer in business who owes $15.3 million. California also has a similar list and singer Dione Warwick is number 3 and owes $2.2 million. New York followed California's lead after California passed a law requiring the publishing of the top 250 taxpayers who owed the most money and in excess of $100,000 to the state. 

25 Counties with the most wealth

Forbes Magazine has pictures and demographics showing the median incomes and other information for the 25 counties in the United States who have the highest median incomes. With over $110,600 median income Loudoun County Virginia is the richest. No Florida Counties are on the list. Six that neighbor the D.C. area in Maryland and Virginia are as well as a number from New York though. The info and pictures can be found from clicking the link below.

25 Richest Counties based on median Income