Wealth Preservation, Trusts and Estates

If two PA Cases continue to hold, Your Joint Accounts Might Not Pass To Surviving Joint Owner. We have long believed in the sanctity of the contractual obligation created by a joint account designation. We believed that the joint account would pass automatically to the surviving joint owner regardless of what the decedent’s last will directed. This belief has now been drawn into question by two pennsylvania cases IN RE: ESTATE OF AMELIA J. PIET 2008 PA Super 72 and In re Novosielski, 937 A.2d 449 (Pa. Super. 2007).
Both of these cases have different sets of fact, but two separate Courts have come to the conclusion that where joint ownership was established after the signing of a will, the joint accounts would pass according to the decent’s last will and testament and not to the surviving joint owner. The Courts further stated that the initial presumption of the Multiple Party Accounts Act, pa 20 Pa.C.S. § 6301 that survivorship rights are established is rebutted by the existance of contrary provisions of a previously signed will.
PLANNING TIPS:1. We suggest that if you make a will and later transfer an account to joint names, you should make a contemporaneous writing that states your intention to make an account joint contrary to the will provisions. 2. You should also consider updating your wills to add a provision that states accounts made joint by you at a later date should not be distributed according to your will unless the joint account is the result of cohersion or fraud. 3. Executors should be careful to consider their obligation to pursue joint accounts being distributed contrary to a decedent’s will.

Please feel free to contact Douglas L. Kaune, Esq. any time at 610-933-8069 or dkaune@utbf.com to discuss your particular Estate Planning, Probate, Trust Planning and Elder law case to determine the appropriate planning for you and your family. Unruh, Turner, Burke & Frees is a full service firm with offices in Phoenixville, West Chester and Malvern representing clients in surrounding communities such as King of Prussia, Collegeville, Royersford, Paoli and Frazer.
Wills * Trusts * Elder Law * Probate * Asset Protection * Power of Attorney * Estate Planning

Save Your Personal Injury Award With OBRA (42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)) Special Needs Trusts in Pennsylvania (PA) and elsewhere. Many individuals injured in an accident, through negligence or medical malpractice find themselves disabled to varying degrees. Among the things they can no longer do is maintain a job. Therefore these individuals receive public benefits such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to assist in maintaining their lives. Lawsuits and ultimately, large monetary awards stem from these types of injuries. It is likely that once these personal injury awards are paid to the individual, they will be disqualified from the public benefits of SSI and Medicaid. The personal injury award could be lost quickly to pay for the recipient’s ongoing medical care and living expenses. An important solution is the OBRA “Payback” Special Needs Trust. Click here to learn more about this type of trust and Special Needs Trusts in general. Generally, the benefits recipient is legally permitted to create a Special Needs Trust for his or her own benefit for the balance of his or her lifetime. This self-settled Special Needs Trust allows the personal injury award to be maintained to supplement and enhance the individual’s public benefits with the balance of the trust being paid back to Pennsylvania (PA) at the death of the recipient.
Please feel free to contact us any time at 610-933-8069 or dkaune@utbf.com to discuss your particular Estate Planning Needs to determine the appropriate structure of your planning documents.
Wills * Trusts * Elder Law * Probate * Asset Protection * Power of Attorney * Estate Planning
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