On December 21, 2022, the Court of Appeals of Iowa issued an opinion in the case of In Re: The Marriage of Derek W. George and Debra A. George, and Upon the Petition of Derek W. George, Petitioner-Appellee, and concerning Debra A. George, Respondent-Appellant (No. 21-1998). Derek and Debra were married in 1998 and had four children. The District Court made a finding of the pre-marital assets of Debra which consisted of gifted and inherited assets. The District Court concluded that Debra’s inherited and gifted funds “became so invested in marital assets that the Court could not fully compensate her
More Legal News & Information... →A recent case by the Iowa Court of Appeals dealt with the tort of intentional interference with an inheritance. In the case, the testator died in 2015. She had three children, two sons and a daughter. She executed a Will in 2010 which divided her estate equally among her three children. She executed another Will in 2011 which left most of her estate to her son, Wayne. After the 2011 Will was drafted, the other two children moved to file for a Guardianship and Conservatorship in regards to their mother. The other brother, Wayne, proceeded to have a Codicil drafted
More Legal News & Information... →The Iowa Department of Revenue has had a long standing position that it will not accept Family Settlement Agreements to change the calculation of Iowa Inheritance Tax. The Department has always relied on the original Will or Trust to calculate the amount of inheritance tax owed to the State of Iowa. A recent Iowa Court of Appeals decision has changed the long standing policy regarding Family Settlement Agreements. Family Settlement Agreements arise in estates or trusts where the beneficiaries of the Estate or Trust agree to enter into an agreement to change how the assets of the Estate or Trust
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