Iowa Estate Plan

A little bit slow on my part in updating my prior post on the Heemstra case , but the Judge in a harshly worded ruling of September 18, 2009 ordered Heemstra to pay $750,000 in punitive damages, another $204,000 in other damages and ordered the sale of land owned by Heemstra and his wife. The judge found that the Heemstras engaged in a "complex shell game" to try and hide and move their assets to prevent Lyon's widow from recovering on her $5.68 million judgment. William Petroski of the Des Moines Register also covered the ruling in an article on the Des Moines Register. The judge found that the family fraudulently transferred their assets (even I called this one) to various family members and entities to produce the perception of a "penniless" defendant in order to avoid payment of the wrongful death judgment. The judgment goes beyond just Rodney Heemstra, and also included certain damages against Heemstra's son, an irrevocable trust, his sister, a limi

A recent case from the Iowa Court of Appeals helps illustrate the importance of putting business matters in writing. In the Matter of the Estate of John Liike , John and his brother had inherited some land from their parent and had operated the land as part of a partnership for several years. The land was never actually placed in the name of the partnership, but kept in their individual names as tenants-in-common. Eventually, they entered into a written partnership agreement which provided that when one of them died, the other partner would have the option of purchasing the partnership property. No changes were made to the title of the land. After John died, John's widow and John's brother did not see eye-to-eye, with each wanting John's one-half interest in the farmland. The trial court found, and the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed, that even though the land was not titled in the name of the partnership, the facts and circumstances clearly found that the land was mea