On November 2nd, 2022, the Iowa Court of Appeals issued an opinion in the matter of the Estate of Helen M. Halter, Deceased, v. Kim Barber, Appellant. The case involves the Estate of Helen M. Halter. Judy Conn is Helen’s daughter in law, and she was married to Bruce Halter until his death in 1982. Judy’s son, Chad Halter, is Helen Halter’s only living grandchild. The other parties in the case are Phyllis Green, who is Helen Halter’s half-sister and the daughter of Phyllis, Kim Barber. In May of 2013, Helen Halter executed her Last Will and Testament, a General
More Legal News & Information... →Chapter 365 of the Iowa Code contains the Small Estate Statute. Recent legislation was passed which has made changes to the Chapter. The current statute is applicable to an estate if the value of the probate assets are $100,000.00 or less. One of the changes made in the legislation is to increase the maximum value of probate assets for an estate to qualify for small estate administration to $200,000.00 effective for estates of decedents dying on or after July 1, 2020. The new change in the maximum value of probate assets, combined with the increase in the amount for distribution
More Legal News & Information... →The Governor recently signed Legislation which amends the Iowa Code Section 633.356 which allows distribution of a decedent’s property by Affidavit in lieu of a formal probate proceeding. The previous Section applied when the gross value of a decedent’s personal property was valued at $25,000.00 or less. The new Section increases the dollar amount to $50,000.00 or less. The new Act, like the previous Act, requires 40 days to pass from the death of a decedent before the Affidavit can be utilized. The new Act becomes effective July 1, 2018. The new Act requires that an Affidavit state that no
More Legal News & Information... →What is it about Recordkeeping that makes it so difficult to do at times? As I get into the topic of recordkeeping, I learned that it is a much broader topic than this Blog has time to address. Recordkeeping addresses an array of matters for which records are created. In my opinion, there are two significant elements of recordkeeping, they are the emotional side (how I feel about recordkeeping) and the reasoning side (what I think about recordkeeping). First, I want to address the emotional side. Is it fun to do? Is it tedious to do? Do I feel rewarded
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