Author: Michele Braverman

From laws against selling doughnuts on Sundays to ordinances that prohibit tying a giraffe to a telephone pole, the annals of American jurisprudence are filled with archaic laws that, while still technically on the books, are rarely, if ever, enforced.

In Alabama, it is illegal to wear a fake mustache in church if it causes laughter. Massachusetts forbids dueling with water pistols. In Oklahoma, tripping a horse is a misdemeanor. 

However, not all outdated laws are mere trivia or historical oddity. Unlike these whimsical holdovers from a bygone era, dower rights, a centuries-old protection for surviving spouses (usually the wife), are actively enforced in several states and can impact estate planning in those states. Dower rights can also resurface in some states where they are no longer on the books if a spouse died prior to the law’s abolishment.

Although dower rights and other state laws (such as the elective share law Indiana has adopted) can provide a surviving spouse with a safety net, they are not a substitute for intentional estate planning; spouses are well advised to go beyond minimum legal requirements to incorporate more modern—and robust—legal protections for each other. 

What Are Dower Rights?

Historically, dower rights, a legal concept dating back to English common law, gave widows the right to one-third of their husband’s estate for their lifetime, providing them support at a time when women could not own property. 

Similar rights, known as curtesy rights, entitled a widower to his deceased wife’s property for the widower’s lifetime—but only if they had children together. 

In the few states where they persist today, dower and curtesy rights grant a surviving spouse an automatic interest in real estate owned by the deceased spouse, whether or not the surviving spouse is omitted from legal documents. 

How Do Dower Rights Work?

Dower rights grant the surviving spouse an ownership interest known as a life estate in the deceased spouse’s real property. 

A life estate means that the surviving spouse can use and enjoy the property during their lifetime, but they cannot sell it outright. Upon the surviving spouse’s death, ownership of that portion of the property typically passes to the next of kin or the deceased spouse’s named beneficiaries. Dower rights also terminate when spouses divorce; in some states, spouses may sign a release forfeiting their dower rights. 

Dower rights supersede a last will and testament, meaning that the surviving spouse retains their dower interest even if they are left out of their spouse’s will or their spouse dies intestate (without a will). These rights apply to real estate regardless of whether the surviving spouse is named on the property’s title. 

Dower and curtesy have mostly been abolished or replaced by more modern statutes, but they remain on the books in Arkansas, Ohio, and Kentucky.

• In Arkansas, a spouse’s share depends on having children. The surviving spouse gets a one-half life estate in the deceased’s real property if the deceased spouse had a child or children, or one-half outright (not a life estate) if the deceased spouse had no children. This right takes precedence over creditors’ claims in probate.

• In Ohio, a surviving spouse gets a life estate in one-third of the deceased spouse’s real property that they owned during the marriage. The right, which ends only by death, divorce, or written release at each property transfer, allows them to also receive one-third of rents or profits from the property for life.

• In Kentucky, when a spouse dies owning property in their sole name, the surviving spouse inherits half of that property outright. The surviving spouse can also receive a life estate in one-third of any real estate the deceased spouse owned during the marriage but not at the time of death. 

How Dower Rights Can Affect an Estate Plan

Dower rights can complicate estate planning and must be taken into consideration in the three states where they apply. They may still apply in other states if the spouse died prior to the abolishment of dower rights laws. 

In these instances, because the surviving spouse has a legal claim to a portion of the deceased spouse’s property, the deceased spouse cannot just leave the entire property to someone else in their estate plan. 

As a result, dower rights can complicate plans to sell or transfer property and may potentially conflict with the deceased’s wishes—especially if the deceased wanted their children or others to inherit outright.

If someone wants to leave their entire property to their children from a previous marriage, dower rights could give their current spouse an ownership stake or life interest in some of that property, leading to conflicts between the estate plan’s beneficiaries and the surviving spouse. 

For example, a person in a second marriage who owns a home solely in their name may wish to leave the home to children from their first marriage. However, if they reside in Kentucky, their current spouse may have a life estate in one-half of the home. This means that the surviving spouse can live in it or rent it out (and collect rent from one-half of the property’s value) for the rest of their life. The children from the first marriage still inherit the house as the will directs, but their ownership is subject to the current spouse’s one-half life estate. They do not get full control until the current spouse dies.

A surviving spouse’s dower rights in Arkansas, Ohio, and Kentucky are difficult—but not impossible—to terminate. Kentucky considers an act of adultery and subsequent abandonment grounds for canceling a spouse’s dower rights. In some cases, prenuptial or postnuptial agreements may also be used to waive or modify dower rights. 

Other Ways Surviving Spouses Are Protected

As societal norms have shifted and legal frameworks have evolved to reflect a more equal view of spouses in a marriage, dower and curtesy rights have largely been consigned to the dustbin of history. 

In 2017, Michigan was the last state to repeal dower rights following the US Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which mandates states to recognize same-sex marriages. By eliminating dower, Michigan modernized its inheritance and marital property laws to treat spouses equally, regardless of gender.

However, the spirit of dower and curtesy rights as the safety nets of their time, protecting surviving spouses from possible destitution and dependency, live on in a modern legal concept known as the elective share. 

An elective share is a legal provision that permits a surviving spouse to claim a minimum share of accounts and property from their deceased spouse’s estate, regardless of the deceased spouse’s estate plan. 

Like dower rights, the intention of the elective share is to prevent a survivor from being disinherited and left destitute and gives them some level of guaranteed financial security. 

Also known as a spousal share or forced share in some jurisdictions, the specifics of the elective share vary by state, but generally, it gives the surviving spouse the option (hence the term elective) to either accept what is left to them in their deceased spouse’s estate plan or instead take a legally defined percentage of the deceased spouse’s assets—usually between one-third and one-half, depending on the state.

Most states, including Indiana, have an elective share law. California is a notable exception, but it and other states have laws—including community property laws, homestead exemptions, and spousal and family allowances—that protect surviving spouses in a similar manner. 

Take Protection into Your Own Hands

While dower rights and more modern protections such as elective share and community property laws offer a fallback for surviving spouses, they should not be exclusively relied on. Every marriage and every family has unique dynamics. Relying on default provisions and automatic protections may not adequately address a surviving spouse’s specific needs or your unique goals and objectives. 

Married couples can incorporate additional protections for their spouses into their estate plan, such as life insurance, beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, and a trust that provides income for a surviving spouse while preserving property for other loved ones. Owning property jointly with rights of survivorship can also provide for a surviving spouse by passing property to them directly, outside of probate. In some cases, a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can help clarify financial rights and responsibilities, especially in second marriages or when one spouse has significantly more assets than the other. 

A strong estate plan goes well beyond the minimum legal requirements a state may offer and is tailored to a family’s unique situation and changing circumstances. Spouses should work together with an estate planning attorney to create a custom plan that respects state law, each other, and their personal and shared concerns. Call us to discuss how we can help you provide for your spouse and address any additional unique concerns that are a priority for you.

Do you ever feel like you never have a moment to yourself? Or that even if you manage to carve out some personal time, you are not spending it as effectively as you could be? 

Our always-on culture may counterproductively (and counterintuitively) be holding us back from achievement. We can work hard and stay busy without making any real progress on our long-term goals. Caught up in our day-to-day lives, we may lose track of the future and what we are working toward. 

By reflecting on your successes and failures from the past year and your priorities moving forward, you can bring more intentionality to your life and make conscious choices, including estate planning decisions, that align with what truly matters to you—not just now, but in the long run. 

What Is a Planning Retreat? 

You might have heard of a wellness retreat—a type of getaway that offers the chance to focus on self-care, relaxation, and spiritual growth.

A planning retreat is similar to a wellness retreat. Both are intended to promote time away from the stresses and distractions of everyday life. Both have become more popular in response to the burnout that many of us feel living in a fast-paced, tech-connected society that increasingly blurs the lines between work and personal life. While wellness retreats are more about enhancing present well-being, planning retreats emphasize achieving future goals—both personal and professional. 

A personal planning retreat can be a game changer. By removing yourself from your usual routine to self-reflect, set goals, and plan strategically, you can come away with a renewed focus about your future and the steps needed to get there. When you have a plan in place, you feel more in control of your circumstances, which can reduce the anxiety and stress that may hold you back from making real progress. 

How Does a Planning Retreat Work? 

A planning retreat does not require specific rules to be effective. You just need to set aside a meaningful amount of time to reflect on the past year and chart your course for the year ahead. 

Think of your planning retreat as your personal company retreat, although if you have a significant other, you might consider making it a joint effort to ensure that you are on the same page with regard to planning. 

Here are some ideas to help you make the most of a planning retreat: 

• Look back. Spring in particular is associated with fresh starts and renewal. Take some time to review the past 12 months. What were your wins and losses? Which projects exceeded expectations, and where did you fall short? What could you do differently next time? Were there things you wanted to get done but did not? Conversely, did you spend time on projects that did not move the needle or that could have been better spent elsewhere? An honest assessment can provide valuable insights that will inform your plans for the next 3, 6, or 12 months. 
• Look ahead. What do you want to achieve in the next 12 months? Start by planning for the things you know you must get done. Then make plans for things that are not required but would improve your life. These may be bigger-picture considerations such as starting a new business, reviewing your finances, budgeting, and creating an estate plan. As you plan ahead, identify fixed events—such as vacations, work projects, and school activities—that you cannot easily reschedule and will need to work around.
• Develop an action plan. A goal without a plan is just wishful thinking. Creating a roadmap for how to achieve your goals and writing it down can increase your chances of success. For each goal, outline the steps needed to achieve it. Make the steps specific, measurable, and perhaps most importantly, realistic. Identify the resources—including that most precious of resources, time—required to bring your vision to fruition, as well as the potential obstacles you might encounter and how you will deal with potential setbacks. 

Early in the planning process (say, day one), you can take a more casual approach, such as brainstorming and journaling, to give you time to relax and your thoughts space to breathe. Try writing by hand, which science suggests is better for processing information. 

Choose a location that inspires you and promotes reflection. You do not have to retreat to a secluded mountain cabin the way Bill Gates did on his “think weeks,” but you should pick a place that takes you away from your usual routine and daily distractions. That could mean taking a staycation at a hotel or Airbnb. 

Planning retreats should not be all work. Schedule time for activities that help you relax and recharge, such as reading, taking a walk in nature, meditating, or simply enjoying some quiet, uninterrupted time.

The typical planning retreat can last from two or three days to a week. If your schedule does not allow for that, a full day or series of afternoons can be just as effective. Plan your retreat in advance and block off the time on your calendar. 

Before packing your bags, clarify your retreat’s main purpose. Are you primarily focused on career planning, personal growth, relationship goals, financial planning, or a combination of these? Having a clear focus and intention will help you structure your time to address your priorities. 

Whatever objectives you set, tie them to tangible outcomes. For example, instead of setting the goal of “review my estate plan” or “start the estate planning process,” a more specific objective might be to choose guardians for your minor children, set up a trust, or identify changes during the past year (e.g., a marriage or death in the family) that should be reflected in your estate plan. 

Annual Planning Retreats and Estate Planning

Setting clear, achievable goals can help reduce procrastination and increase the likelihood that you will follow through on them. 

Procrastination is the top reason people provide for not having an estate plan. Fewer than one-quarter of Americans reported having a will in a 2025 survey, and nearly half of respondents said their lack of estate planning is because they “just haven’t gotten around to it.” 

However, around 1 in 5 respondents without a will have started to talk to their loved ones about their wishes or to research estate planning online, while about 1 in 10 have started to write down a basic plan. 

These findings suggest that many people want to start estate planning but have not formally begun the process. In many cases, their efforts stop short of consulting a lawyer or creating legally valid documents—concrete actions that turn estate planning from a vague to-do item into an officially documented plan. 

If you recognize the importance of estate planning but have not yet prioritized it, put it on your planning retreat agenda. When you are ready to take the next step, contact our office and schedule an appointment with an estate planning attorney. 

Fighting over provisions in your will or trust can derail your final wishes, rapidly deplete your financial legacy, and tear your loved ones apart. However, with proper planning, you can help your family avoid a potentially disastrous fight.  

If you are concerned about challenges to your estate plan, consider the following:

1. Do not attempt do-it-yourself solutions. If you are concerned about a loved one contesting your estate plan, the last thing you want to do is attempt to write or update your will or trust on your own. Only an experienced estate planning attorney can help you create and maintain an estate plan that will discourage lawsuits, carry out your wishes, and ensure all legal formalities are followed. 

1. Let family members know about your estate plan. When it comes to estate planning, secrecy breeds contempt. While it is not necessary to let your family members know all the intimate details of your estate plan, you should let them know that you have taken the time to create a plan that spells out your final wishes and whom they should contact if you become unable to manage your affairs or die. If you want your family to know the key details of your plan, you can hold a family meeting with an estate planning attorney. A family meeting is a proactive way to ensure that your desired family members understand your estate plan and the decisions you have made. This transparency can help prevent misunderstandings, reduce the risk of disputes, and provide an opportunity for your loved ones to ask questions in a supportive environment. By addressing potential concerns in advance, you can foster clarity, alignment, and a smoother transition when the time comes.

1. Use discretionary trusts for problematic beneficiaries. You may feel that you cannot leave a loved one an inheritance because of concerns that they will squander it, use it in a manner that clashes with your beliefs or spend it in a way that is harmful to them. However, there is an alternative to disinheriting someone. For example, you can require that the problematic beneficiary’s share be held in a lifetime discretionary trust and name a neutral third party, such as a bank or trust company, as trustee. This will ensure that the beneficiary will receive their inheritance according to the terms and conditions you have dictated while keeping the money out of the hands of unintended parties, such as creditors or an ex-spouse. You will also be able to control who will inherit the balance of the trust if the beneficiary dies before the funds are completely distributed. If you want fewer instructions or restrictions on your loved one’s inheritance, you can place it in a trust and leave instructions for distributions to be made at specific ages or upon attaining certain milestones. You can customize when and how they receive their inheritance. There is no requirement that your beneficiary receive their inheritance outright.

1. Keep your estate plan up-to-date. Estate planning is not a one-time transaction—it is an ongoing process. You should update your estate plan as your circumstances change. An up-to-date estate plan shows that you have taken the time to review and revise your plan as your family and financial situations change. This, in turn, will discourage challenges since your plan will encompass your current estate planning goals.

Following these four tips will make your loved ones less likely to challenge your estate planning decisions and more inclined to fulfill your final wishes. If you are concerned about loved ones contesting your will or trust, please contact us as soon as possible.

In many families, everyone gets along, happily gathering for the holidays, sharing laughs, telling stories, and enjoying each other’s company. Then, the matriarch or patriarch dies. Suddenly, years of pent-up resentment and hurt feelings surface, and the once-happy family is now embroiled in litigation over the head of the family’s money and property.

Having an Estate Plan Is Crucial to Your Family’s Success

When everyone is alive and happy, it is easy to think that nothing will break a family apart. Many people think that since everyone gets along, estate planning is unnecessary because everyone will look out for one another and do only what is fair. However, having a properly prepared estate plan is crucial. Failing to plan not only takes all the control out of your hands but can also leave hurt feelings and possible confusion over your true wishes. This confusion may force family members to pursue the only source available to resolve the misunderstanding: probate court.

Not Just Any Estate Plan Will Do

While a lack of planning can lead to disastrous consequences, poor planning can be just as harmful. Documents that are outdated, vague, or improperly prepared can lead family members to challenge them. Family members may have differing opinions about your intentions if your documents are unclear. This is especially unfortunate if you have a trust: one of the primary reasons to prepare a trust is to avoid court involvement. A trust contest, however, places your loved ones and the provisions in your trust under court scrutiny.

You May Be Able to Use a No-Contest Clause

If your documents are up-to-date and clearly state your intentions, but you worry that your decisions may displease your family, in some states you can include a no-contest clause that could help prevent or limit challenges to your will or trust. A no-contest clause is a provision that states that if a beneficiary contests your will or trust (whichever document contains the clause) and is unsuccessful, they will receive nothing. However, the effectiveness of no-contest clauses can vary by state, so if you think your family might contest your wishes, seeking an experienced estate planning attorney’s help is incredibly important.

A common situation where contests can arise is when someone is left out of the will or trust. If you want to disinherit a family member intentionally, consider leaving them a nominal amount at your death and using a no-contest clause, as these clauses apply only to named beneficiaries. The beneficiary has something to lose if their contest is unsuccessful, so this may discourage them from contesting your wishes in the first place. However, as previously mentioned, you need to work with an experienced estate planning attorney to ensure that this strategy is best for you based on your state’s law and your family’s situation.

You Can Protect an Inheritance with Proper Planning

Alternatively, if you are concerned about a beneficiary receiving money outright because of creditor issues, spending habits, etc., you need not disinherit or leave them out of your estate plan. Leaving money to a family member does not have to be an all-or-nothing decision. By utilizing a discretionary trust, you can set aside money for the individual to be distributed by a trustee when and how the trustee deems appropriate. If you do not want to put such tight restrictions on a beneficiary’s inheritance but still want a level of protection, you can have a beneficiary’s inheritance held in a trust and distributed to them at specific ages or when they reach certain milestones. You do not have to leave your loved one an inheritance outright without any requirements or stipulations.  

A Proper Estate Plan Can Help Avoid Contests

Having a well-drafted, up-to-date estate plan is crucial regardless of your family situation. Will or trust contests can be costly and quickly drain what you want to leave behind for your loved ones. We can assist you in creating an estate plan that will ensure that your wishes are carried out and that harmony can be maintained within your family after you are gone. Call us today to schedule an appointment.

Michael Jackson passed away in 2009, but the settling of his estate continues more than 15 years after his death due to a lingering tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other legal challenges, including a lawsuit brought by his mother over a deal to sell part of his music rights to Sony Music Group for $600 million. 

A Los Angeles appeals court issued a ruling in August 2024 allowing the deal to proceed over the objections of Katherine Jackson, who argued that the transaction with Sony violates the terms of Michael’s will and runs counter to his wishes. The sale will now move forward, providing money for his heirs—and valuable estate planning lessons about trusts and controlling money and property from the grave. 

Background on Music Sale Legal Dispute

According to the terms of Michael Jackson’s will, his entire estate is to be turned over to the Michael Jackson Family Trust. The primary beneficiaries of the trust are his three children and unnamed charities. John Branca, an attorney, and John McClain, an accountant, are the trustees of the trust and the executors of Jackson’s estate. Trustees and executors have similar roles—the winding down of a decedent’s affairs—but in different contexts. A trustee manages accounts and property owned by a trust. An executor (called a personal representative in some states) is responsible for managing a deceased person’s probate estate (which consists of accounts and property in the deceased person’s sole name that did not have a beneficiary at the time of their death) through the probate administration process.

Katherine, Jackson’s mother, is a life beneficiary of a portion of a subtrust, the terms of which give the trustees sole discretion to manage the trust assets (accounts and property owned by the trust) for Katherine’s “care, support, maintenance, and well-being.” When Katherine dies, any remaining assets in her subtrust pass to the children’s share of the trust. 

Jackson’s will was admitted to probate in 2009, but his estate remains frozen due to a long-running tax issue involving $700 million allegedly owed to the IRS. 

A May 2024 court filing shows that, as long as the legal dispute continues, the family trust cannot be funded. In the meantime, however, the family is receiving payments through an allowance provided by the estate and its executors.

In 2010, the probate court authorized the executors to continue running Jackson’s businesses. Because the estate is still pending before the court, the executors had to seek court approval to move ahead with a deal between the Jackson estate and Sony Music to purchase half of the King of Pop’s publishing and recorded masters catalog (called the Mijac catalog). 

When they brought the deal to the judge, Katherine filed objections. Jackson’s children initially sided with their grandmother in opposing the transaction, but after the probate judge ruled last year that the deal could proceed, they accepted the decision. 

Katherine subsequently filed an appeal. The appeal spawned a separate lawsuit between Katherine and Jackson’s son, Bigi, who argues that it is “unfair” that the estate should have to fund her lawsuit against the executors when the Jackson children already decided an appeal was not in their best interests. 

In a court filing, Bigi’s lawyers wrote that participating in an appeal was a waste of resources because the chances of a reversal would be “an extreme longshot.” 

It turns out the lawyers were right. The appeals court sided with the probate court and ruled that the estate can proceed with the sale to Sony, denying Katherine’s attempt to block the agreement. 

Sony will now have a stake in what Billboard says could be the largest valuation of music assets ever—an estimated $1.2–$1.5 billion. 

Appeals Court Ruling

Katherine argued in her appeal that the music rights sale violated the terms of Jackson’s will and established probate law. 

She said Jackson told family members before his death that the assets should never be sold. She also claimed that her son intended to give the “entire estate” to the trust. According to Katherine, his music catalog—not proceeds from selling his music catalog, or partial management rights over that catalog—should pass to the trust. 

In rejecting her arguments, the appeals court determined that Jackson’s will gives the executors “broad powers to buy and sell estate assets in the estate’s best interests” and that “all of the estate’s assets will be distributed to the trust.” 

Katherine argued that these provisions are inconsistent and that the probate court’s order violates the second provision because it allows estate assets to be transferred to a joint venture (i.e., Sony) instead of to the trust. The appeals court disagreed, opining:  

We conclude that the provisions are not inconsistent: Read together, they give the executors broad powers to manage estate property while the estate remains in probate, and they provide for the transfer of all estate property to the trust when the probate action is concluded. . . . The proposed transaction is consistent with the terms of Michael’s will as so interpreted, and thus the probate court did not abuse its discretion by granting the executors’ petition. 

Katherine could still appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, but based on the interpretation of the lower court, her chances of a successful overturn are low. 

Planning Lessons from the Estate of Michael Jackson 

“Michael died testate on June 25, 2009,” the appeals court notes in its background to the case. 

Testate means that Michael died with a will. He therefore avoided dying intestate, or without a will—something that has plagued the estates of musical superstars like Prince, Tupac Shakur, and Marvin Gaye. 

Dying intestate can lead to protracted estate litigation between heirs and other interested parties, especially when the estate belongs to a celebrity worth many millions of dollars. We see this with Prince’s estate, which is still being litigated more than eight years after his passing. 

A formal written will takes precedence over oral statements made to friends and family members. It could be the case that Jackson communicated to his mother, as she claims, that the music catalog should never be sold. But goals and wishes casually discussed with friends and family are not legally enforceable unless they have been put in a valid, legally enforceable document. 

Jackson not only left behind a valid will but also created a revocable trust during his lifetime to benefit his children and mother. He additionally had the foresight to place terms on the trust to ensure that his children would be mature enough to receive their large inheritances, stipulating specific disbursements to them at ages 30, 35, and 40. 

Jackson also avoided another mistake in his estate plan by giving broad powers to the executors. Estate planning attorneys typically advise clients to give executors broad powers to buy and sell estate property during probate so they do not have to spend time and money seeking court approval for routine transactions.

Jackson’s will is crystal clear on this point. Article V of his will provides: “I hereby give to my Executors, full power and authority at any time or times to sell, lease, mortgage, pledge, exchange or otherwise dispose of the property, whether real or personal, comprising my estate, upon such terms as my Executors shall deem best . . . .”

This type of provision lets executors sell assets in response to changing circumstances that the original owner might not have been able to predict when they created their estate plan. For example, Jackson’s estate filed a brief with the appellate court claiming they negotiated the Sony deal to take advantage of an asset market that was “by far the hottest it had ever been.” 

On the surface, it looks as though Michael made all the right estate planning moves: He created a will and a trust and gave his executors the authority to maximize his estate’s assets for the benefit of his heirs. But he made one potential mistake: Not all of his assets were transferred into the trust during his lifetime, in a process known as trust funding. Trust funding is crucial to ensure that all of a person’s assets are administered privately under the terms of the trust rather than in the public eye of a probate court.

Michael had what is known as a pour-over will that was intended to transfer all assets not already controlled by the trust into the trust upon his death. Pour-over wills serve as a safety net; they transfer all probate assets into the trust so they can be administered with the other trust assets pursuant to the terms of the trust. 

But leaving assets out of the trust and using a pour-over will to direct them to the trust after his death meant that the assets had to go through probate, opening the estate up to some of its current predicaments, such as the lawsuit his mother filed challenging the executors. 

Create an Estate Plan That Matches Your Legacy Goals

Most people do not have to deal with the complex estate planning considerations that celebrities face, particularly a celebrity on the scale of Michael Jackson, whose musical legacy continues to generate huge profits. Jackson was the top-earning dead celebrity in 2023, a credit to his executors’ successful management of his estate. 

Choosing the right executor and granting executor powers are key aspects of an estate plan that are often overlooked. When making your plan, you are under no obligation to name a friend or family member as executor. You can do what Jackson did and choose professionals with legal and financial expertise. 

His choice of a revocable trust and a pour-over will may be questioned postmortem, but there were probably reasons why he chose this type of arrangement. Failing to fully fund his trust, however, may have been an oversight that could have been prevented with the help of an experienced estate planning attorney.  Estate planning choices involve pros and cons, costs and benefits, that need to be evaluated on an individual basis. What makes sense for Michael Jackson and his heirs—or any other family—might not make sense for you and your loved ones. 

To put your finances and family in the best situation, you need a customized estate plan that is based on your specific wishes for your money and property, and you should revisit your plan every few years to ensure that it reflects current circumstances. 

Call or contact our attorneys for help crafting a plan that meets your legacy goals.

“No, I am your father.” 

These words, uttered by James Earl Jones in his voice-over role as Darth Vader, are indelible in the minds of Star Wars fans. Jones is also well known for voicing Mufasa in The Lion King and a series of cable news promotions in which he declared, “This is CNN.” 

But Jones’s booming basso profundo is just one part of his legacy. The famed actor, who passed away in September at age 93, had a decades-long career in film, television, and theater that earned him a place among the greatest performers of our time. His legacy also includes a collection of properties in upstate New York, a net worth in the tens of millions of dollars, and a deal ensuring that future generations of moviegoers will enjoy his iconic voice. 

From Silent Stutterer to Silver Screen Star

Jones is best remembered for his voice, but as a child, he did not speak for years after he and his family moved from Mississippi to Michigan when he was five years old; the trauma of relocating caused him to develop a stutter. 

“I was mute from grade one through freshman year in high school . . . I just gave up on talking,” Jones said in a 1986 interview.” 

A high school teacher helped Jones find his voice again by encouraging him to read his poetry aloud, sparking a passion for oration and performance that took him from the small stages of northern Michigan to the silver screens of Hollywood. 

Jones won a public speaking contest as a high school senior and received a full scholarship to the University of Michigan, where he studied drama. He then served in the US Army during the Korean War before moving to New York and landing lead roles in Shakespearean stage productions. 

In the mid-1960s, he made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and scored roles on TV’s Guiding Light and As the World Turns. But it was his 1969 portrayal of boxer Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope—both on Broadway and in the 1970 film—that brought Jones major recognition, earning him a Tony Award and an Oscar nomination.

Jones was the second African American man nominated for an Academy Award. He eventually won an Oscar in 2011 when he received an Academy Honorary Award, making him one of the few entertainers to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).

He never won an award for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, but it was this 1977 performance that gained him international fame and immortalized his voice in popular culture. 

Jones chose to take a lump-sum payment of $7,000 (the equivalent of around $36,000 today)—instead of a share of profits—to voice the villainous Vader and, at the time, considered it good money. However, choosing the lump sum over a profit-share option reportedly cost him and his family millions in payouts. 

Explaining his thought process years later, Jones said that as a starving young actor, he never expected Star Wars to achieve its cult status and become a multibillion-dollar franchise: “Seven thousand dollars was big money for me in those days. I was broke and needed the money to pay rent and buy groceries.”

Jones retired from his Darth Vader role in 2019. Prior to his passing, however, he teamed up with a Ukrainian AI company to recreate his voice and gave Lucasfilm permission to use it in future productions. His AI-generated Darth Vader voice can be heard in Disney’s 2022 Obi Wan Kenobi series. According to IMDb, it was his final credit. 

With the deal, the voice we almost never heard is now assured to live forever. And while Jones’s legacy is inseparable from what he did behind the microphone, what he achieved on-screen is equally memorable. His nearly 200 film and television credits include Roots, Conan the Barbarian, Coming to America, Field of Dreams, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, The Simpsons, and Cry, the Beloved Country. 

Personal Life, Properties, and Probable Sole Heir

Jones died on September 9, 2024, surrounded by family at his home in Pawling, New York, located in Dutchess County. He had an estimated net worth of $40 million at the time of his death. 

Jones fell in love with Dutchess County during a road trip there in 1970 with a friend who was interested in property for sale. His friend passed on buying the property, but Jones ended up securing the land for himself. Far from the bright lights of Hollywood, Jones lived the rest of his life in Pawling, where he was active in the local community and he and his wife raised their son, Flynn. 

He liked it so much, in fact, that he bought 10 neighboring properties over the years and laid down roots of his own. Jones had a particularly close relationship with Poughkeepsie Day School, which Flynn attended from 1994 to 2001. In 2000, the school named its auditorium the James Earl Jones Theater in his honor. 

Flynn was born in 1982 to Jones and his second wife, Cecilia Hart, shortly after the couple wed. Hart, also an actor, died of ovarian cancer in 2016. 

Flynn Earl Jones was close to his father and, though not an actor himself, followed in his footsteps by working as an audiobook narrator. He also married an actress, Lorena Monagas. The couple wed in 2019 in Tarrytown, New York, an hour south of Pawling. Flynn has 17 voiceover credits on Audible.com but prefers a life out of the spotlight and has no social media profiles. 

As James’s only child, Flynn could be the sole inheritor of his late father’s estate, although there are few public details about the estate plan. 

An obituary from the Horn & Thomes, Inc. Funeral Home in Pawling notes that Jones leaves behind “a loving family including his son Flynn Earl Jones, daughter-in law Lorena Monagas Jones, his brother Matthew Earl Jones, his Aunt Helen Irene Georgia Connolly Morgan and many, many others.”

Matthew Earl Jones is James’s half-brother. They have different mothers and the same father. It is uncertain whether he or other family members will share an inheritance with Flynn. 

It is also possible that Jones included charitable giving in his estate plan, given his community-mindedness. Those who knew him in Dutchess County praised his generous spirit. He supported several charities, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Habitat for Humanity. His obituary states that, in lieu of flowers, donations in his honor can be made to Hudson Valley Hospice, providing another hint that Jones might have left part of his estate to charity. 

For a man of his accomplishments and fame, Jones managed to stay largely out of the public eye. He even requested that his name not appear in the credits of the first two Star Wars movies in deference to the actor in the Darth Vader costume. 

In the few interviews he did give, Jones often reflected on his preference for a quieter life. It would not be surprising if he maintained this privacy in death by using trusts to transfer assets to beneficiaries. A trust agreement stays private, unlike a will, which is a public record once filed with the probate court. 

Estate Planning Is Not Just for Celebrities

Celebrity estate plans often make headlines only when something goes wrong and causes family drama. Actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Heath Ledger, for example, both failed to update their estate plans to include a new child who had been born prior to their passing. Other famous actors, such as Bob Saget, Norm McDonald, and Gilbert Gottfried, died without a will, leading to protracted legal disputes in each case. 

Arguably, the biggest mistake that Jones made was forgoing the profit-share option when he signed on to voice Vader. He admitted in 2010 that this decision cost him “tens of millions of dollars.” But Jones can be forgiven for this youthful indiscretion. Almost nobody—not even George Lucas—expected Star Wars to make much money. 

We all make mistakes when we are starting our careers and beginning to build our legacies. How we finish is more important. Given what we know about Jones, it seems highly unlikely that he would neglect the people and causes he cared about through a lack of estate planning. 

If he were still alive today and asked about his estate plan, he might respond, to quote Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” Call us to schedule a consultation.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has released its General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 Revenue Proposals. Commonly referred to as the Greenbook, this document lays out tax proposals that would support President Biden’s policy priorities if he is reelected to a second term. 

A major focus of this year’s Greenbook is increasing taxes on corporations and high-income individuals to ensure that “the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share,” says the Biden administration. 

Some of the proposals in the administration’s budget would modify estate and gift taxation, helping to generate an estimated $97.2 billion in additional revenue over 10 years. These proposals are still a long way from being enacted, but they bear monitoring from an estate planning perspective. 

The Greenbook Proposes Closing Estate and Gift Tax Loopholes

Tax proposals in the Greenbook are not proposed legislation; each budget item would need to be introduced and passed by Congress to become law. 

However, the Greenbook provides insight into tax matters the Biden administration could prioritize in a second term. Among them are closing what the Greenbook calls “estate and gift tax loopholes” that “allow the wealthy to reduce their tax by using complicated trust arrangements to transfer their assets to their heirs.” 

Three proposals in the Greenbook address the following trust and estate tax issues: 

• Modifying grantor trust rules that allow significant value to be removed from an estate without being taxed
• Reclassifying certain appreciated asset transfers so they are subject to capital gain taxes
• Minimizing or eliminating valuation discounts for some intrafamily asset transfers

Grantor Trusts

The Greenbook outlines a plan for modifying tax rules for grantor trusts, including grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs).  

According to the Greenbook, grantor trusts and GRATs allow taxpayers to use three common tax planning strategies to significantly lower their combined federal income, gift, and estate tax burden: 

• Funding a GRAT with accounts and property (assets) that the grantor expects to appreciate and structuring the GRAT in such a way that incurs very little gift tax when appreciated assets are transferred to remainder beneficiaries 
• Selling an appreciating asset to a grantor trust of which the taxpayer is considered the owner for income tax purposes, allowing the taxpayer to remove future asset appreciation from their gross estate without the recognition of capital gains on the sale or the payment of gift or estate tax 
• Reselling an appreciated asset from the grantor trust back to the trust’s owner, making the purchase disregarded for income tax purposes and not subject to capital gains tax 

The Greenbook proposes the following changes to grantor trusts:

• Recognize sales between a grantor and a grantor trust as taxable and require the seller to pay taxes on them. 
• Treat the payment of grantor trust income taxes by the trust owner as a taxable gift to the trust that would occur on December 31 of the year in which the tax is paid (unless the owner is reimbursed by the trust that same year). 
• Impose a minimum value on a GRAT’s remainder interest for gift tax purposes.
• Require a minimum and maximum term for GRATs.
• Prohibit a GRAT grantor from engaging in tax-free exchanges of trust assets.  

Accounting firm BDO USA writes that these proposals would overturn the Internal Revenue Service rule that disregards grantor/grantor trust transactions as taxable events. The GRAT proposals would also effectively eliminate short-term GRATs used as part of a “rolling GRAT strategy” and prohibit “zeroed-out GRATs,” says BDO.

Appreciated Property Transfers

Another reform proposed in the Greenbook that has trust and estate planning implications deals with the taxation of capital income (i.e., capital gains tax). 

Under current tax law, when someone (a donor) gifts an appreciated asset to another person (a donee) during the donor’s lifetime, there is no realization of capital gain by the donor when they make the gift. In addition, the donee does not have to recognize the capital gain until they dispose of the appreciated asset. 

And when a deceased person passes on an appreciated asset upon death, the recipient receives an adjusted basis equal to the asset’s fair market value at the time of the decedent’s death. If the basis adjustment is a step-up, the postdeath transfer would allow the recipient of the gift to avoid federal income tax on asset appreciation that occurred during the decedent’s lifetime, as all such gain had been wiped out by the adjustment in basis. 

The Greenbook describes these rules as giving preferential tax rates on capital gains that largely benefit high-income taxpayers, resulting in many of them paying a lower tax rate than middle-income earners. Proposals in the Greenbook would tax unrealized capital gains on transferred appreciated property when the following “realization” events occur: 

• Transfers of appreciated property by gift or death
• Property transfers to or from most types of trusts
• Property distributions from revocable grantor trusts to persons other than the trust’s owner or their spouse

BDO calls the proposal a radical departure from how capital assets are currently recognized as income. The addition of realization events would consider a sale of a capital asset to have occurred even when there was no sale, unlike now, when there must be a sale or property exchange to generate a capital gain. 

Taxpayers may not have the money to pay the capital gains tax incurred from a new realization event because the transferor does not receive cash in exchange for the property transferred.  Thus these transferors would need to engage in extremely careful planning to avoid liquidity issues surrounding a deemed sale. This could result in needing to sell assets other than those transferred in order to pay the tax.

Intrafamily Asset Transfers

Family members can transfer hard-to-value assets from one member to another to lower their tax burden. The Greenbook cites two ways this can be achieved: 

• Transfer portfolios of liquid assets, such as marketable securities, into partnerships or other entities; make intrafamily transfers of interests in those entities (rather than transferring the actual liquid assets); and then claim entity-level discounts for valuing the gifted asset. 
• Make intrafamily transfers of partial interests in other hard-to-value assets (e.g., art, real estate, and intangibles), allowing each family co-owner to claim “fractional interest discounts.” 

According to the Treasury, these strategies take advantage of lack of marketability and lack of control factors used to determine the fair market value of such partial interests, but they are not appropriate when families act together to maximize their economic benefits and artificially reduce the transfer tax due. 

A Greenbook proposal to reform these intrafamily asset transfers would 

• reduce or eliminate discounts related to marketability and control when transferring partial interests within a family if the family collectively owns at least 25 percent of the property; and
• make the transferred partial interest’s value equal its pro rata share of the total fair market value of all interests in the property held by both the transferor and their family members. This collective fair market value would be calculated as if all interests in the property were owned by a single individual.

This proposal would replace section 2704(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. 

“Family members,” for purposes of the proposal, would include the transferor, ancestor and descendants of the transferor as well as the spouse of each family member. 

Stay Ahead of Trust and Estate Tax Changes

Themes of fairness and cracking down on what the Biden administration considers tax avoidance strategies by wealthy individuals figure prominently in this year’s Greenbook. 

The future of Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget recommendations is highly uncertain. But proposed changes to grantor trusts, intrafamily asset transfers, and unrealized capital gains could have a major impact on how wealthy families approach estate and gift taxes and necessitate new and creative estate planning strategies. 

Thinking about the what-ifs of the 2025 Greenbook proposals can be a useful exercise for staying one step ahead of changes to the tax code. To review your estate plan and stay prepared for what could be coming, schedule a meeting with our tax and estate planning attorneys.