I want to know someone 's opinion about this discussion is there any one can share it with me please?

Johnny Dedman(Dedman) has a $10,000.00 certificate of deposit(CD) that he owns with his sister Sally Stiff(Stiff) at a local bank as joint tenants with right of survivorship.He also ownsanapartment building worth $150,000.00 with his sister Stiff,and his brother Stef, as joint tenants with right of survivorship.Dedman has life insurance on his life of $100,000 with a designated beneficiary of his three children Juanabe, Juniper, & Mabel Dedman.Dedman has a last will and testament that leaves all of his estate equally to his three children Juanabe, Juniper, & Mabel.Dedman has no other assets in his name.Stiff dies on January 15th and Dedman is so upset that he has a heart attack and dies a week later on January 22nd.Does Dedman have a probate estate? What is the value using the information listed above?How much of the assets listed above do the three children end up with and how did you determine your calculations?What does brother Stef Dedman end up with and why?

INSURANCE We rst start with a look at insurance, which is a contract between the insured and the insurance company(insurer) to cover a loss, injury, damage, disability, death, or liability for any of the above caused by an insured party. Insurance is risk assessment and risk management. You will hear that some businesses are "self insured". They have set aside funds in a specialized account to guard against contingent liabilities, rather than paying a premium to an insurance company to guard against the loss. By purchasing insurance a party is transferring the risk from the insured to the insurer to the extent of the coverage purchased. Sometimes insurance is bought directly from an insurance agent who typically is an employee of the company, and in other instances it is bought from an insurance broker, who places your policy with one of the insurance companies he is licensed to by issuing a binder and a receipt for your payment. The insurance company typically issues the policy of insurance to its insured. The broker is your representative, whereas the insurance agent works for the company and is not your agent or advocate. This can sometimes pose an ethical dilemma in term of the correct type and amount of coverage selected. There are a multitude of different types of insurance coverages, and many of them are set forth on the Exhibits in the text on pages 901. To purchase insurance though, you must have an insurable interest in the individual or the property or the risk of loss you are attempting to cover. That insurable interest must still exist on the date of the claim or loss occuring. I cannot buy insurance on your life because I know you are being shipped to Afghanistan and I might "cash in" ifyou are killed. But I can buy insurance on my life and name anyone I want as beneciary ofthe policy death benet. The process for getting insurance starts with the application which is often attached to the policy jacket and remains a part of the Insurance contract since it can negate the policy claims payment obligations if there is misrepresented or fraudulent information by the applicant on the form. Contrary to what the text states on page 952, if an agent or a broker in New York issues an insurance binder, and has accepted payment, the coverage is effective the date listed on the binder, and you are not uninsured until you receive th actual policy of insurance. Remember that in New York insurance contracts and policies fall within the "plain language laws" and are suppose to be written in clear, concise language, with appropriate headings, and with words that have every day meaning. Any ambiguities will be construed against the insurance companies. Co-insurance(P.903) provisions contained in the policy can limit the payment for partial losses where the insured deliberately undervalues the total loss value of the property to pay a lower premium. Typically you must insure at least 80% of the full market value, or your claim payment will be proportionately reduced. There are also incontestability clauses and time periods where after a certain time period elapses the company cannot contest payment, for example, on a medical issue or because of suicide. This is often two years after the effective date of the policy. See Exhibit on Page 904. FAMILY LAW A basic understanding of Family Law is critical knowledge for you to have as a business person, and important with regard to protection of your personal assets. It is also critical to your knowledge of personal property rights. estates, gifts, and wills. Over 50% of thos individuals that marry will divorce. This year for the rst time single women gave birth to more children than married women in this country. Family Law involves but is not limited to the following legal areas: custody, visitation, child support, declarations of paternity, family offenses(orders of protection), child abuse, neglect, divorce, legal separation, distribution of community property, equitable distribution of marital property, declaration of separate property, awards of maintenance(alimony), distribution of debt, and contracts in contemplation of marriage pre-nuptial agreements. Initially, marriage is a contract licensed by the state that where the couple resides, provided that the couple is able to satisfy the requirements for a legal union in that state. Some require blood tests, birth certicates, classes, and fees. It differs from state to state. As you know some states recognize same sex marriages, most do not. New York currently does now have a same sex marriage law, thus people of the same sex can legally marry in this state. New York does also have a law that gives full faith and credit to marriages legally consummated in other states. So if a person legally married their same sex partner in a state that allows those individuals to marry, and they thereafter move to New York, this state will recognize the relationship as that of married partners. Marriage confers specific benets, rights, and obligations upon each of the married partners. There are rights to a portion of the others estate upon death, children born to be considered legitimate and rightfully entitiled to inherit, and protection to property acquired during the marriage(marital propert) from transfers or dissipation by their spouse. The tenancy by the entirety designation of ownership, which prohibits transfer ofjointly held assets as detailed in our property chapter is a creation of marriage. There is a financial responsibility for your spouse if they are orbecome a ward of the state, or require public assistance. Besides licensed marriage, a number of states recognize and allow common law marriage. These are marriages recognized without the license where the parties who are eligible to marry, concensually agree to marry, carry themselves out as husband and wife to public, and reside together for the duration of time set forth by the state statute. The relationship often times is required to be consummated by a physical act, if you know what I mean. It differs from state to state. New York does not have common law marriage laws, but does, as with regard to the same sex marriage issue, recognize marriages that are common law, as long as they satisfied the states requirements they resided in forcommon law marriage. In advance of marriage, people enter into pre-nuptial agreements, which are contracts entered into between the parties in contemplation of the marriage that are intended to specify their rights and obligations in the event they end up ling for divorce. The purpose of these agreements is to limit the monied spouses exposure often, but at a minmum, to lower the need for court intervention to settle nancial matters involving property, pension benefits, and spousal support(alimony). There is a requirement for full disclosure and both parties should have separate counsel in New York. Regarding an engagement that has gone bad before the parties marry, New York recognizes the nofault rule, meaning regardless who is atr fault, you have to give the ring back if the marriage is not consummated. Yes, even if it is his fault or he calls it off. Not in Massachussetts and several other states. Children and support. In this area of family law, the rst category of concernis with regard to paternity. These are procedding brought to determine the parentage of children who are not born to a marriage. They establish the legal rights of the child to inherit, custody, visitation and child support. Typically in disputes over custody there are two main categories of right specied: legal custody & physical custody. Legal custody is typcallyjoint. This means that the parents must consult with each other on all major decisions affecting the child or children, such as medical, educational, extra-curricular, and religion. It is not intended to require the day to day decisions to bejoint. The physical custody would outline where the child lives and the schedule of visitation sometimes called parenting time. The primary phusical custodian of the child is entitled to child support under the Child Support Standards Act in New York. All the states were and are required to have a formula to calculate the amoun to be paid. In New York: it is percentage formula against gross income. Example: for 2 children it is 25% of gross income after subtraction of FICA, plus a pro-rata amount for health insurance, uncovered medical, day care, and college. In New York this obligation continues until age 21 unless the child is sooner emancipated. There are only six(6) states where this obligation continues past age 18. Please also note, if the spouse receiving child support requests Child Support Collection Unit services, then the court is mandated to require it. That means the child support will be paid to the county who will remit it to the receiving spouse, and it is collected by a wage deduction order. Thus if one of your employees owes child support the payments will come out of his pay. That does not mean they are a dead beat, just that the receiving spouse wants it paid in this manner. Property Rights. Property rights are determined upon granting of a divorce depending upon the laws of each state. They differ from state to state. New York is an equitable distribution state. Some states, a signicant minority are community property states. California is one. In the community property states the property designated as marital property is divided equally, regardless of any "equitable" factors and regardless of whose name the property is in(husband or wife). In the equitable distribution states, the court is more likely to take into consideration factors such as standard of living, duratrion of the marriage, and other nancial contributions. The court will likewise allocate the debt accumulated during the marriage between the spouses. The court will need to as part of the process have to determine if there is any separate property, which is property acquired before the marriage, and ,maintained separately from the other spouses accounts. It can also be property obtained by one of the spouses during the marriage that was a gift or inheritance.These accounts again, must be maintained separate at all times. Transfering them into joint names will cause the asset to become a marital property asset subject to distribution by the court. Maintenance, Spousal Support, or Alimonszhis is a controversial and difficult area of the law. In New York as well as in many states, there is no formula to calculate them. When should they be awarded, how much, and for how long are typically up to the discretion of the court. New York hasjust passed a new no-fault law effective October 12, 2010, that contains a very convoluted temporary maintence formula, It is expected in the next couple of years that New York will have a formula. These awards often will consider health insurance expense and availability as part of this issue. The court will take into account over 19 factors now in determining the appropriateness of maintenance. Age, health, income, property, standard of living, education needed to be self supporting, custody, visitation, child support, and debts will all bear on the court's decision just to name a few of the current 19 statutory factors. Separation Agreements. The parties can take the matter of determining these marital issues out of the hands of the court. The parties can sign a contract commonly known as a separation agreement. This is a document typically prepared by an attorney for one of the parties and reviewed by the attorney for other. It is a formal contract, meaning state law requires the document to be in a particular form inorder to be legally enforceable. The intent here is to outline in this document category by category all of the parties' rights and responsibilities stemming from their marriage. Thatr means custody, visitation, child support, asset division, debt allocation, pension and retirement benet distribution, life insurance, personal property(contents of residence, cars, bank accounts) all need to be agreed upon and are then set forth in this contract. Once signed it is legally effective immediately. It does not need to be filed or approved by the court for the parties to legally separated from each other. A couple of important things, if the parties are legally separated but not divorced, they can still le a joint income tax return for that year, and can stil cover the other spouse on their health insurance. Once divorced, that changes as the parties are then single. When the court grants a divorce to either party, the terms and provisions of their separation agreement are incoporated into their divorce decree, meaning the court directs the parties to comply with its terms just as if the court decided the issues at trial. A copy of the separation agreement is typically appended right to thejudgment of divorce, which is the document the judge signs terminating the marriage relationship. However, if the parties cannot amicably resolve their matters the court will after trial determine the outcome for them. Typically the court decision will not contain the kind of detail to resolve the parties' differences that the separation agreement does. It is also very expensive as the court will generally require the use of expert witnesses, such as accountants and appraisers. Some parties try to use mediation rst before resorting to lawyers and the court system. If you have to go to court, it can still be settled at any time between the parites. ESTATES & WILLS There are a lot of terms in this section of the chapter. Be sure to review some of them on pages 956-7, 907, as I will not recite them again here. I will try to succinctly summarize the important aspects of this section. If you die and have a will you die testate, and if you die without a will you die intestate. The representative appointed in your will to handle estate matters is the executor, and the person appointed by the court if you die without a will to administer your estate in accordance with the laws of intestacy is the administrator. The administrator is usually the nearest of kin to the decedent(person who died). In a will there are three basic categories of bequests(personal property) and devises(real property). These types are specic, general, and residuary. A specic devise would mention an address of the property or a specic bequest would be a specic item-my diamond wedding ring or my 2009 Lexus. A general devise-all of my land in New York, a general bequest- all ofjewelry or a stated dollar amount. A residuary clause would generally refer to whatever is left over after the specic and general bequests are satised. It would say for example "All the rest, residue and remainder of my property, of whatsoever kind and character and wheresoever situated I give devise and bequeath to....". The specific bequests and the general bequests are satised rst, and the residuary clause only comes in to play if there is anything left over. Bear in mind any estate or income taxes must be paid off rst, administration expenses for lawyers, executors, administrators, and debts thereafter before any payments or distributions can be made to the beneciaries. If a beneficiary dies before the testator dies and the will is not modied, knowledge of per stirpes and per capita distribution is important. Under per stirpes, the heir takes the share his or her deceased parent would have been entitled to inherit, meaning grandchildren would get unequal shares, whereas per capita means all grandchildren get the same amount if all the parents are deceased. Check out the charts on page 915. TRUSTS Trusts are contract agreements drawn up typically by lawyers to have certain of their clients asset held by a third party(trustee) for the benet another party(beneciary) under specic and certain direction and conditions. These directions can tell the trustee how to hold the property, how long to hold it, how to distribute and when to terminate the trust. lfall of the creator's property is in the trust and/or if all is in trust except for what is othenNise disposed of byjoint account, or designated beneciary provisions, probate can be avoided, as there would be no probate estate. Remember that after the lawyer draws up the trust instrument and the trustee is appointed by it, the creator of the trust must still transfer into the trust the property they want the trustee to hold, otherwise the trust account is never funded. The trust can be either revocable or irrevocable. For medicaid qualification purposes many of the trusts are established as irrevocable. Trust will either be inter vivoscreated when the grantor is alive, or testamentary-created in the will itself. Testamentary trusts often designate that if they die before their children reach a certain age the amount or property left for them is held in trust. If there is no will, an an heir at law is under age 18, their share will be held for them in a trust established by the court with a court appointed trustee. There also less formal trust arrangements such as a Totten Trust, which is created by the deposit of funds in a person's own name as a trustee for another. This is a contingent trust that can be cancelled at any time before the death of the grantor. Once the grantor dies the beneficiary gets the money. There are a number of other trust types that are very complex estate planning tools used by attorneys, accountants, and certified nancial planners. What is need for there to be a valid will differs from state to state. There are certain statutory formalities that are strictly enforced. In New York there is a requirement that the testator(person making the will) be of sound mind, intend it to be their last will, declare it to be so, consent to the witnesses, sign it in the presence of the two witnesses( a mark will sufce), indicate that they have either read it or understand its contents in the presence of the two witnesses. Failure to fulfill these requirements can result in the will be not accepted by the court for probate. Probate is the process ofling the will with the court after the testators death to have the executor appointed and begin the process of settling all matters pertaining to an estate. How do you revoke a will? Several ways. You can rip it up, burn it, or destroy it by other means. You can direct your lawyer to destroy it if done so in writing, make a new will, or issue a codicil, which is generally an amendment to a will, but can in reality nullify the existing will. Remember very importantly, that a will can only pass onto the beneciaries property that is not otherwise designated for passage in other ways or by operation of law. This means for example, property held in joint tenancy, or as tenants by the entirety, will pass to the survivor, and are not property of the decedent as soon as they die. Accounts such as 401 K's, pensions, life insurance and annuities all have designated beneciaries. They all get what is provided on the beneficiary designation forms and it is not part of the probate estate. The executor never touches it. In the Instance of the joint account holders the institution assures the survivor gets the account, and with the life insurance and retirement accounts the company holding the funds writes a check directly to the beneciary. The executor or administrator never touches or sees the money