2022 Cost of Living Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Under Colorado Probate Code

by Jody Hall, Paralegal

The 2022 cost of living adjustments of certain dollar amounts under the Colorado Probate Code has been published by the Colorado Department of Revenue. Probate practitioners should be aware of the change in figures related to the intestate share of a decedent’s surviving spouse and supplemental elective-share. The amounts for exempt property, lump sum exempt family allowance, installment amount exempt family allowance and collection of personal property by affidavit have been adjusted upwards from 2021 as well. Read more

Discounted Assets and Funding Challenges in Estate Administration

by Kami Pomerantz

Estate of Miriam M. Warne, T.C. Memo 2021-17 (February 18, 2021)  (“Warne”), a recent Tax Court case, illustrates a potential mismatch between the value of an asset for estate tax purposes and the value of the asset for purposes of the marital or charitable deduction from estate tax.  This mismatch can lead to a phantom loss of estate value for purposes of such deductions and cause an inadvertent estate tax surprise.  Although this mismatch can be avoided, it requires those drafting specific gifts and administering an estate to choose assets carefully when making bequests and funding decisions.

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Valuing Businesses for Gift and Estate Tax Purposes

by Richard Kiely

Determining the “fair market value” of assets for Gift and Estate Tax purposes can be a daunting task depending upon the nature of the asset to be valued.  Valuing certain types of assets, such as real estate or tangible property, can be logical and easily approached by even the most inexperienced layperson.  However, the process and detail required to value more complex interests in businesses can be a challenge.  To enlighten the business valuation process, this post outlines some fundamental valuation principles and describes the various methods that might be employed to determine a business’s (a business interest’s) “fair market value.” Read more

2021 Cost of Living Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Under Colorado Probate Code

by Jody H. Hall

The 2021 cost of living adjustments of certain dollar amounts under the Colorado Probate Code has been published by the Colorado Department of Revenue.  Probate practitioners should be aware of the change in figures related to the intestate share of a decedent’s surviving spouse and supplemental elective-share.  The amounts for exempt property, lump sum exempt family allowance, installment amount exempt family allowance and collection of personal property by affidavit remain unchanged from 2020. Read more

Freirich v. Rabin – Confidentiality and Attorney-Client Privilege After Death

by Richard Kiely

In the midst of a global pandemic and a presidential election, the Colorado Supreme Court still found a way to make news within the legal community by addressing the application of a lawyer’s duty of confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege after the death of a client.

For some time now, practitioners have known that the attorney-client privilege and duty of confidentiality both survive a client’s death.  Wesp v. Everson, 33 P.3d 191, 194 (Colo. 2001) (“[t]he attorney client privilege generally survives the death of the client.”); Colo. Bar Ass’n Ethics Comm., Formal Op. 132 , at 1 (2017) (“A lawyer’s duty of confidentiality continues after the death of a client.”)  However, until Freirich v. Rabin, 2020 CO 77, the Colorado Supreme Court had never addressed who holds such privileges and how they are waived.  In Rabin, the Court held a deceased client’s legal files belong to the lawyer except for “documents having intrinsic value or directly affecting valuable rights, such as securities, negotiable instruments, deeds, and wills.”  The Court further held that the decedent, and not the personal representative, holds the attorney-client privilege after death.  However, by appointing a personal representative, the decedent impliedly waives the attorney-client privilege and duty of confidentiality as “necessary for the administration of the estate.” Read more

Options for Transferring Vehicle Titles – Before or After the Owner’s Death

by Jody H. Hall

Navigating the DMV can make anyone skittish, but in the specialized area of trusts and estates, it makes people downright nervous.  In addition, the Colorado DMV generally requires their own forms for transfers before or after death.  As with all other assets, the name or names on the actual vehicle title is going to control how we need to dispose of or transfer that vehicle when needed.  Below are a few forms specific to the unique needs of trust and estate practitioners and their clients and links for your convenience. Read more

2020 Cost of Living Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Under Colorado Probate Code

by Jody Hall, Paralegal

The 2020 cost of living adjustments of certain dollar amounts under the Colorado Probate Code has been published by the Colorado Department of Revenue.  Probate practitioners should be aware of the change in figures related to the intestate share of a decedent’s surviving spouse, supplemental elective-share, exempt property, lump sum exempt family allowance, installment amount exempt family allowance and collection of personal property by affidavit.

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Trustees Beware: Provide Timely Information to Beneficiaries

by Carol Warnick

Individual trustees often fail to fulfill the duties imposed on trustees, not only by the trust instrument, by also by the trust statutes applicable in the jurisdiction.  It is often the case that the individual trustee is a member of the family and seems to believe that the rest of the family won’t care if he or she doesn’t follow the applicable statutory and trust requirements.

A recent Nebraska case, In Re Estate of Forgey, 906 N.W. 2d 618, (Neb. 2018), featured a decedent who died in 1993.  By 2013, when one of the family members initiated litigation, the trustee, a son of the decedent, had neither distributed out the property of the trust into the separate shares called for by the trust document, nor had provided annual accountings to the beneficiaries as required by both the Nebraska statutes and the trust document itself.  In addition, he failed to sign and file the timely prepared federal estate tax return, resulting in an IRS assessment of penalties and interest of over $2 million. 

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Inheriting Vehicles – Sample Checklist Before You Go to the DMV

by Jody H. Hall, Paralegal

As a probate paralegal, I spend a decent amount of time helping families transfer assets and completing forms.  One of the more common questions that I get is “What does one need to do and take to the DMV to transfer a vehicle title to the beneficiary?”  I typically go through the steps and let the client know all of the information they should have handy; however recently I discovered an awesome checklist from the Denver DMV.  While they state that this is specific to Denver County and you should check with the specific county, this is a really good starting point for all Colorado titles. Read more

Your Secret’s Safe with Your Estate Planning Attorney, Or Is It?

by Lauren A. Morris

A mother visits her attorney to discuss her estate plan. She expects that the conversations she has with her attorney will be forever confidential and privileged, particularly when she wishes to guard uncomfortable realities from her family members, such as her desire to disinherit her son. Upon the mother’s death, her disinherited son figures out that he is in fact removed from her estate plan. Here we have the classic scenario in which a snubbed child wants to challenge the provisions in the estate plan to prove that the decedent did not intentionally fail to provide for him. But with the mother now deceased, how do we determine her actual intent?

The mother’s estate planning attorney is in the next best position to ascertain her intent, but doesn’t the attorney’s duty of confidentiality to the mother prevent him from disclosing any information he may have regarding her intent, specifically when the mother thought she was speaking in confidence? Read more