Iowa Estate Plan

A recent ruling from the Iowa Court of Appeals addressed gifts from a parent (now deceased) to a trusted child.  Applying the standard involving "confidential relationships" and gifts during life, the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed that the recipient of the gifts was required to return the gifts received during mom's life back to her estate. Photo by  Rene Böhmer  on  Unsplash Quick facts:  Mom and dad had four kids.  Dad passed away a few years ago and one of the sons started assisting mom with her financial affairs.  This son was also a Florida-licensed attorney (cue the evil character background music).  Unfortunately, sibling love was not bountiful even when mom was alive, which continued after mom passed away.  Following mom's death, it was eventually revealed that numerous accounts and funds had been transferred ("gifted") to the son that was helping mom out, but that the gifts were "at his mother's direction" and his siblings we...

You gotta love email.  In seconds, I can transmit a message around the globe to one person or to hundreds of people, or I can share a photo of my dog, Georgia.  Or you can email your parents' attorney and tell the attorney what changes to make to your parents' estate plan to exclude one of your siblings.  Whoops. In  Estate of Boman , decided earlier this year, the on-going feud between two sisters and their brother, plus a little "spice" mixed in with the stepmother, resulted in jury trial supporting the claim of undue influence for a will and also intentional interference of inheritance by the sisters.  The court's ruling specifically identified the numerous email communications from the sisters to their dad's attorney as significant evidence supporting the brother's claim.  While the brother (will contestant) was not able to successfully support his claim of lack of capacity as his evidence failed to find lack of capacity for "the day the will ...