Minneapolis Probate and Estate Administration Law Blog

These days, people are living longer and longer and with those longer lifespans sometimes come very expensive medical care and the inability to manage one's own affairs. The current situation of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor provides a really good chance for Minneapolis residents to think about end-of-life care and estate management.

Gabor has been hospitalized for quite some time now and has been in ill health ever since her two strokes, which she suffered in 2005 and 2007. Now, her daughter Constance Hilton and her ninth husband Frederic von Anhalt are sparring over the way Gabor is being cared for and what is happening to the fortune she amassed as an actress.

Last month, we told Hennepin and Ramsey county readers about how some people are questioning the way Britney Spears' conservatorship is being used. A recent move to add her fiancée as her co-conservator has only intensified the criticism of the Spears family. Although this story is certainly tabloid fodder, it is actually quite instructive as to the uses and possible misuses of a conservatorship.

A quick recap: Britney's father Jaime was appointed her conservator in 2008 after she suffered a very public mental meltdown, meaning he was put in charge of her affairs, such as collecting her income and deciding where she will live. In the four years since then, Spears has entered into contracts for endorsements and performances but has claimed that she lacks capacity to testify in lawsuits in which she is the defendant, leading some to think the Spears family is abusing the privileges of a conservatorship.

Across the country, many states are seriously rethinking their approach to how they tax estates and bequests to beneficiaries. Although there has not been as much movement on this front here in Minnesota, this is still an estate planning trend worth knowing about because if it picks up enough steam, it could result in our legislators in St. Paul taking up the matter, too.

Indiana recently increased the amount that a person can transfer without being hit by a tax penalty and other states, including Nebraska, Oregon and Ohio, are considering changing their tax regimes so that they take less from certain estates. A big reason for this movement is that the idea of a "death tax" incenses people.

Although estate planning law in Australia is certainly different than the estate planning laws applicable here in Minneapolis and St. Paul, a recent story out of the Land Down Under has a necessary, if perhaps uncomfortable, estate planning lesson that Twin Cities residents could learn from.

Heiress Gina Reinhart, who inherited her father's vast mining fortune, has said she does not plan to leave any of her family money to her children. She has said they are not fit to handle big amounts of money because none has ever had a job that was not given to him or her by the family and they all lack the common sense, education and experience necessary to handle that money responsibly and competently. Her children are unhappy about this, of course, and have sued for what they see as their share of the fortune.