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August is national Make A Will Month, and a good time to make sure that your planning documents are in place.  Just under half of U.S. adults say that they have created a will or plan for how they would like for their estate to be handled after their death.  The Trusts and Estates attorneys at Weintraub Tobin have written frequently on this blog about the importance of having an estate plan, and about the difficulties (and even litigation) that heirs can face when a will is not in place.
Continue Reading Resources for National Make a Will Month (August)

Typically, only those of us who are trusts and estates attorneys geek out over the fascinating problems that handwritten wills create. But when those wills were written by a music icon worth $80 million, suddenly this topic is intriguing to a much broader audience. Aretha Franklin died on August 31, 2018. Her family was confident that she died without a will, but on May 3, 2019, the personal representative of Franklin’s estate discovered three separate documents, each of which may constitute a valid handwritten (or in legal terms, “holographic”) will. Now, the previously uncontested estate has divided Franklin’s family and is likely headed to litigation. Below are a few common pitfalls of holographic wills that are issues in Franklin’s estate.
Continue Reading What Aretha Franklin’s Estate Teaches Us About the Pitfalls of Handwritten Wills