The Paley Rothman Blog
Paley Rothman shares this library of resources with clients and friends of the firm to help them stay ahead of legal and business developments and trends. Here, you will find helpful tips and tools written by our attorneys. The information in the blogs and articles is not a substitute for legal advice and should not be relied on as such. Should you have any questions or want legal advice, please contact the attorney who wrote the blog or article.
July 9, 2013
By
Michelle Chapin on July 9, 2013
By now you have almost certainly heard that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal definition of marriage as “marriage only between a man and a woman” in United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. ___ (2013). As a result, same-sex spouses can now enjoy many federal benefits that were previously unavailable to them.
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June 11, 2013
By
Michelle Chapin on June 11, 2013
Virginia Code §20-111.1(A) and (D) revokes a beneficiary designation in any contract naming a former spouse as the beneficiary of death benefit proceeds. If the revocation is preempted by federal law, the statute stipulates that the former spouse is personally liable to the person who would have received the death benefit. This law was intended to prevent divorced individuals from inadvertently granting a windfall to an ex-spouse.
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June 4, 2012
By
Michelle Chapin on June 4, 2012
Virginia recently enacted legislation (§ 55-548.16:1 of the Virginia Code) which allows a trustee granted discretionary power to appoint trust principal or income, with the ability to appoint trust assets into a second trust, even if the second trust was created by the trustee of the first trust. This process is commonly known as decanting.
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June 4, 2012
By
Michelle Chapin on June 4, 2012
On April 4, 2012, Governor Bob McDonnell signed into law new trust legislation which provides additional opportunities for Virginia and non-Virginia residents to achieve creditor protection. Effective July 1 of this year, a person may create a self-settled spendthrift trust into which the settlor (otherwise known as the person creating the trust) irrevocably transfers assets to a trust, and the assets are protected from claims of the settlor’s creditors, provided the settlor is a discretionary beneficiary and there is at least one other beneficiary of the trust.
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March 8, 2012
By
Michelle Chapin on March 8, 2012
The Obama Administration recently released its 2013 Revenue Proposals (the “Green Book”), a number of which are designed to limit certain gift and estate planning opportunities that are currently available. Here is a brief overview of some of the relevant proposals:
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