When we put pen to paper, sometimes the words don’t come out right.  If that happens, hopefully there’s an opportunity to explain what we meant.  Most times that’s true – even in estate planning.  For example, we have seen how scrivenor’s errors can be explained.  But, for the second time in less than a year, Georgia has limited the role evidence of the settlor’s intent plays under Georgia trust law. In Gibson v. Gibson, the Georgia Supreme Court strictly applied a statute governing the transfer of property to a trust to determine that mistitled brokerage accounts were never transferred to two trusts regardless of the settlor’s intent.

In Gibson, the Georgia Supreme Court had to decide a number of issues arising out of a divorce.  One of the multitude of issues on appeal was whether

The 7520 rate for July 2017 has decreased to 2.2%.

The July 2017 Applicable Federal Interest Rates can be found here.

In light of this week’s $448 million lottery jackpot – the 7th largest in Powerball history – the following is a re-posting of our blog entry from January 12, 2016.  If you ever do hit it big, make sure to do everything you can to avoid the “curse of the lottery.”

With up to $1.4 Billion at stake in Wednesday’s Powerball, those who play the lottery are busy making plans for what to do with all the money they may win.  If you win it, you won’t ever have to worry about money again – right?

A guardian‘s job requires that the guardian be involved in the affairs of the ward.  In turn, the ward likely is going to be dependent on and trust the guardian.  Chances are – because Georgia sets an order of preference for persons eligible to become a guardian for a ward – the guardian also may be a close family member.  Since people often like to put their family members into their wills as beneficiaries, a guardian may run into a situation where the ward names him or her as a beneficiary of the ward’s estate.  While that seems all well and natural, because of the fiduciary relationship between guardian and ward, that will may get a close look by a court.

So what is a guardian to do?

Distance herself from the estate planning process.

While there is no