Patrick J. Gibbs Law Blog

I was listening to the radio as I drove home the other day and heard someone talking about all the capital gains taxes that were going to be imposed on inherited property from anyone who dies in 2010. It's just not that bad for most people because the change in the law only affects estates with a lot of capital gains. The tax is likely to hit only those estates where there is over $3 million of capital gains (when there is a surviving spouse) or over $1 million of gains (when there is a... Read More

Last week I received a call from a client who I had been representing in her capacity as the executor of a medium sized estate. She has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and started thinking about updating her will. She was surprised when I told her that I have been doing about 75-100 estate planning projects per year for many years.

Just because she had seen me for a probate matter, she thought that was all I did. That miss-perception is not unusual. So I thought it... Read More

Bob Fulton died from a heart attack a few years ago. He was 73 years old. He died while still “at the top of his game” (to borrow a phrase from baseball) as a distinguished college professor at Georgia Tech and a voice of reason on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.

It says something about our times that his death seems much too soon. Twenty years ago he would have been considered “elderly.” The suddenness of it reminds us of how precarious life can... Read More