Trustees Removed for Excessive Compensation
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court  recently reviewed issues surrounding the long challenged administration of seven trusts created in 1924 under the will of Lotta M. Crabtree, a well-known vaudeville star and stage actress with an estate worth $4 million.
The case was on appeal from the Probate and Family Court to remove the two current trustees and surcharge them for excessive fees and administrative expenses charged to the Crabtree trusts in the years 1999 and 2000. The SJC opinion released on May 14, 2007, affirmed the removal of trustees for breach of duty for surcharging excessive fees to themselves and expenses paid to the trusts. Although the trustees claimed that prior trustees had been administering Crabtee's trusts similarly for decades, the court affirmed that a fiduciary can not change the past but has a responsibility to rectify any prior known breaches of duty.
Click here to read the full Supreme Judicial Court opinion.
|
WBUR Covers Proposed Massachusetts LTCI Requirement
The WBUR Newsroom recently posted  a story regarding proposals to require that Massachusetts citizens purchase long-term care insurance. Similar to the state's mandatory health insurance law, this would provide a more incremental approach to encourage buying insurance to cover stays in nursing homes, assisted living, or home care facilities.
Click here to listen to the story on WBUR.
|
 Trust in a Plan: Local Story Shows Importance of Estate Planning for Seniors
Therese Miller of Worcester, Massachusetts believed she would never be incapacitated and -- despite the advice of her elder law attorney son, James A. Miller -- she never wrote a durable power of attorney or a health care proxy. At 82, she was admitted to a nursing home, sold her home and spent half the proceeds on her care. Mrs. Miller was one of the 1.6 million people age 65 and older in a nursing home in 2000 in the United States. Yet, many Americans, like Mrs. Miller, do not plan for the possibility of needing long-term care.
Estate planning is not just about protecting and preserving your estate after you die. A will alone, which "speaks at death", leaves you without any protection if you are totally incapacitated. Seniors need to take the necessary planning steps now to ensure they and others in their lives are looked after when they can no longer do so themselves.
Click here to read the full article. |
