Related Material

On June 6, 2014, the VT Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hale Mountain Fish & Game Club in an appeal by neighbors who have been trying to shut down the 60+-year-old club located in Shaftsbury, VT.

We recently met with a new estate planning client who is not a native Vermonter, but a West-coast transplant. This client felt compelled to meet with us after he had read somewhere that Vermont was “not a good place to die owning real property”.

If you or a member of your family has foreign investment accounts, and/or interests in trusts, corporations or other foreign entities that have not been disclosed to the IRS, I strongly suggest you read on, because there is a growing list of reasons to “come clean” now.

Attorney John Newman gives insight into common questions people have about simple wills, probate disbutes and estate planning.

Granted, in this strangest of winters we’re all more than ready for the arrival of a little snow and ice. But attorneys in Vermont may also want to think about preparing their clients for the arrival of ICE of a different sort – the federal agency of Immigration & Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

In our immigration practice, we receive the occasional call from a Canadian who wishes to enter the United States but cannot due to a criminal conviction. For example, we recently advised on the case of an individual who had been barred from entering the United States because of a conviction for the possession of one marijuana cigarette in the United States 10 or 20 years ago (at a time when President Clinton was admitting that he had smoked marijuana, but “did not inhale”).

During our seminar at the March 2008 Bar Meeting, we had a lively exchange on the potential ethical pitfalls of joint representation. To further this discussion, we would like to offer some language that you might consider for your estate planning joint engagement letters.

A little history is helpful in understanding the imposition of an exit tax on US citizens and long-term residents who commit a taxable act of expatriation on or after June 17, 2008. Since 1966, the Internal Revenue Code has contained anti-abuse rules attempting to tax individuals who renounce their US citizenship for tax avoidance.

To try to foster a state-wide contemplation on the topic of unauthorized practice of law for elders and immigration matters, herein is a rule currently under study by the Vermont Supreme Court.

Reading a state’s statutes to try to figure out how they might apply to an international transaction can be difficult. US state legislatures do not often consider international commerce, even though US trade and worker immigration flows with a contiguous country, like Canada can be substantial. One of the issues that has just arisen in our immigration practice is whether workers’ compensation coverage needs to be secured here in Vermont when an individual employed by a Canadian employer enters Vermont to perform services here.

The contempt statute has been in the Vermont statutes for well over a hundred years, but it has been underutilized in recent history.

CAUTION: The Information Contained in This Article Applies to Estates of Vermont Residents (or Nonresidents Owning Vermont Property) Dying Before January 1, 2016. An Article Addressing the Vermont Estate Tax Applicable to Decedents Dying After 2015 Will Be Posted at a Future Time. By Ron R. Morgan, Esq., and Matthew D. Getty, Esq. It would be an understatement to say that estate planning to minimize potential federal and/or state estate tax liabilities has become considerably more complex in recent years. There are two principal reasons for this.

As a result of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, a person receiving rental income from real estate is treated as engaged in the trade or business of renting property (amended IRC §6041(h), effective for payments made after 31 December 2010).

Co-authored by Paula McCann, Esq., and Ron R. Morgan, Esq. Vermont may be well on its way to a dubious number-one ranking: for that of thefts by fiduciaries from estates of all types. What lawyers need to know about preventing or prosecuting theft by fiduciaries.

If you are serving on a nonprofit board, you have a fiduciary duty of care in exercising oversight of the organization. One of the ways to ensure an active oversight role for your board is to review the annual filing of IRS Form 990.

Firm partner Jack Facey has recently been answering questions for New England Condominium Magazine readers, a magazine published for owners, board members, lawyers and businesses working for condominium associations. The column is called “Ask a Lawyer.” The questions and answers posed to Mr. Facey follow.

As part of an article written by our Trust and Estate Department, we are proposing that litigants in probate court be able to use the same tools as are available in the Civil Division of the Superior Court to protect their financial interests when filing a petition and to collect final judgments. Current probate rules do not set forth the normal civil rules “tool kit” of pre-judgment mechanisms for finding assets and securing them until final judgment.

When the Vermont Legislature was considering the changes to the spousal share rules during the 2009-2010 session, the legislation originally contained a measure that would have criminalized thefts from any fiduciary relationship.

Judging from the interest generated by our 2004 CLE offering and by telephone calls and emails we have received since then, our article on the tax and Medicaid planning aspects of what we tongue-in-cheek termed the “standard Vermont estate plan” has led attorneys to explore alternatives to the rather common recommendation of a joint tenancy with a family member to pass a Vermont elder’s home to the next generation. Since the article was published (VBA Bar Journal, Summer 2003), the US Congress passed legislation that radically changes the Medicaid planning aspects of our article. In addition, the Vermont Supreme Court has issued three recent decisions that also must be considered in using the survivorship or remainder features in deeds to pass a home to surviving children.