Right now may be the best time in a generation for significant family wealth transfers. The combination of a difficult recession, a low interest rate environment, the very real probability of future legislative change, and perhaps most importantly, a deep need for shared family wealth has created a perfect opportunity for families to transfer significant wealth.

National Estate Planning Awareness Week is October 19-25, 2020. To celebrate, let’s take a look at some recent case law that deals with a mutual will and a subsequent, traditional will.

A mutual will is one that is binding upon the Testator. Each Testator, usually married couples, those in a committed relationship, or ex-spouses, each draft a mutual will and the survivor cannot change its terms. But what happens when the survivor executes a subsequent will with different terms? Which one controls? How would a practitioner go about helping a client enforce a mutual will?

Many estate planning attorneys choose to expand into the practice of trust administration to provide additional legal services to their clients and increase profits in their law firms. As an estate planning attorney, you may initially encounter trust administration when a long-time estate planning client passes away and the family turns to you, as the trusted legal advisor, for help. Or potential clients may find you online while searching for a trusts and estates attorney because they need help handling the legal issues surrounding their deceased loved ones’ final affairs.