The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari of In re Clark, 714 F.3d 559 (7th Circuit 2013), and thus will apparently resolve a split among federal Circuit Courts of Appeals regarding whether a debtor’s inherited IRA is exempt from bankruptcy.…
Read MoreThe IRS recently published Rev. Proc. 2013-35, which announces the annual inflation adjustments for certain federal tax provisions for 2014. Among many other adjustments, the federal estate, gift and generation-skipping federal transfer tax exemption was increased from $5.25 million to…
Read MoreA recent Washington State Court of Appeals (Division I) case holds that the time during which the creditor of a probate estate can bring a claim begins to run from the mailing of the Notice to Creditors, even if the…
Read MoreA condominium is a way of organizing ownership in real property. Condominiums are used when portions of a larger piece of real property may be portioned into smaller “units,” and then the owners of such units share in the use…
Read MoreEstoppel certificates are documents that establish facts that the signing party then cannot contradict. Estoppel certificates are very common when dealing with commercial property. In the commercial property context, estoppel certificates are relatively simple documents that request a tenant to provide/verify…
Read MoreA recent decision by the Washington state Supreme Court, Raven v. Department of Social and Health Services, clarifies the duty of a guardian of the person to take an incapacitated person’s preferences into account in making residential placement decisions. The…
Read MoreSellers of undeveloped land selling to buyers who plan on developing the land often want the buyer’s development work if the buyer does not follow through with the deal. In Mangat v. Snohomish County, No. 67712-8, (Div. 1, Aug. 26, 2013),…
Read MoreEarlier this year, the Washington state legislature made changes to the Washington state estate tax designed to limit the impact of the Bracken decision. The legislature made other changes to the state estate tax, which have been discussed in a…
Read MoreIn Bavand v. OneWest Bank, F.S.B., the original deed of trust named IndyMac Bank, F.S.B. as the “Lender” and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (“MERS”) as “the beneficiary” and “as a nominee for the Lender and Lender’s successors and assigns.”…
Read MoreThe Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued guidance clarifying the federal tax implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Windsor decision. Windsor held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as between one man and…
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