Nashville Estate Administration Law Blog

The worst thing that can happen with any estate plan is to have the will invalidated after the estate planner dies. This could render the entire goal of the estate plan moot, and then the estate could be managed (and divided) according to a prior will or Tennessee intestacy laws. To avoid a situation like this, estate planners must make ever effort to ensure their wills are valid by adhering to the following six requirements:

Voluntary. The creator of the will must not be forced, coerced or misled to create the document through the actions of others.

As we discussed in a recent post, three children of country music legend Glen Campbell filed a lawsuit to invalidate the singer's two most recent wills. Their claim was, essentially, that their father was not of sound mind due to Alzheimer's disease when he drafted the wills.

The first will in 2001 and the second in 2006 both served to disinherit the three litigants, leaving the entire estate to his current widow and five other children. This case brings up two questions: Is it possible to successfully challenge a will like this, and when can potential heirs invalidate a will?

You love your art collection, which is why you want to pass it on to your favorite people as a part of their inheritances. However, bequeathing art the right way takes advanced preparation to ensure that your loved ones benefit from your art pieces without suffering from tax burdens, arguments over who gets what and other probate-related nightmares after you're gone.

From an estate tax planning perspective, estate planners need to make sure that their art connections and total estates do not exceed the $11.18 million federal tax exemptions. If they do exceed this amount, then an art collection may require special strategies to ensure that all tax burdens are covered and accountable. Some estate planners, for example, will want to avoid the need to liquidate works of art to pay for tax liabilities and some advanced tax planning strategies may be required to achieve this.

Imagine you have an 18-year-old child, and you have $3 million in your retirement account. You know that your 18-year-old isn't ready to handle this amount of assets, but you also want your child to receive the money if you unexpectedly pass away. One way to handle this issue allows you to safeguard your assets from being spent irresponsibly while still permitting your son or daughter to benefit from them. The strategy involves the use of a spendthrift trust.

A spendthrift trust involves the creation of a trust with a spendthrift provision and other kinds of protective clauses. Estate planners can create these trusts immediately or set them up to be created automatically at death via a will or testamentary.