Stan Lee, the legendary comic book creator, died in November 2018 and his estate has been in litigation ever since.

Stan’s wife had died in July 2017 and thereafter Stan had named Jerry Olivarez, a publicist, as agent under a power of attorney. The Compliant in the probate case alleged that Jerry did several unscrupulous acts: dismissed Stan’s lawyer and hired his own without disclosing the conflict of interest; fired Stan’s banker and transferred roughly $4.6 million out of Stan’s account; duped Stan into loaning him $300,000; bought an expensive condo using Stan’s money; and more. The suit listed several causes of action, including financial abuse of an elder, fraud, and misappropriation of name and likeness. Jerry denied the allegations.

A silent trust is one where the beneficiaries are not aware of its existence. Why would a grantor want to create a silent trust? The grantor may not want to discuss how she designed the residuary distribution provision of the trust, as it may breed family conflict. Or, the grantor may think that if a beneficiary knows that he is set up for an inheritance, he will become lazy or a spendthrift. In any event, the grantor wishes for the trust to be kept a secret. Are these types of trusts allowed?

On February 24, 2022, the IRS issued proposed regulations regarding the Secure Act. Public comments can be submitted via www.regulations.gov and there is a public hearing scheduled for June 15, 2022. We will be thoroughly analyzing the 275-page document and will post a blog at a later date with clarifications and highlights from the proposed regulations.