The Circle will be Broken - Feud over de Young Art Continues

NY Times brief reports the 400-piece Jolika collection of New Guinea Art at the de Young Museum in San Francisco will be broken up to resolve the debt arising from the donor family's inheritance dispute. This is a story we've followed here and here. Seven pieces will be sold at auction in Paris on June 17th by Sotheby's and the City of San Francisco will allow an addition 76 works to be sold.

Dogs Get the Short Stick in Helmsley Charitable Trust Distributions

The trustees for Leona Helmsley's estate said Tuesday they have started spreading her estimated $5 billion fortune by awarding $136 million in grants to charitable causes; a mere $1million is going to the dogs.

Helmsley, who died in 2007 at age 87, had ordered in a 2004 revision to the mission statement for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust that its money go to "purposes related to the provision of care for dogs," along with other charities.

A Manhattan judge ruled in February that the money was not limited to man's best friend, allowing it to be spread among dozens of charities for sex abuse victims, Jewish day school students, the homeless and medical research.

$40 Million for the Center for Digestive Diseases at NY Presbyterian Hospital

Other Winners

Center for the bowel disease program at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
A charity that provides food in Souther Africa
Cornell's School of Hotel Administration

Canine causes will split $1 million 10 ways among charities that provide, among other things, training for seeing-eye dogs, dogs for the deaf, and bomb sniffers.

The Art of the Inheritance Dispute - Putting it on the block edition

New development in an inheritance dispute we commented on here. The of the dispute is the Papua New Guinea art that de Young Trustee John Friede, promised his prized collection to the de Young Memorial Museum but at the same time put it up as collateral in a legal settlement over his mother's estate with his two brothers.

Now the SF Chronicle reports that the Museum is preparing to sell 76 pieces of the 400 piece collection it has on display.

John Friede's two brothers contend they have the right to seize the collection and sell up to $20 million worth of its art after a Florida judge ruled that Friede had violated the terms of a legal settlement involving their mother's estate.

He so far has paid his brothers more than $22 million of the $30 million, but legal fees and interest make the shortfall around $10 million, court documents show. A good piece on the back history of the dispute is Kate Taylor's article in the NY Times.

In order to preserve the art collection for the city, museum officials and Friede agreed in March to auction off 76 items like masks, headrests, and mortars.

Also in addition to the family the feud, the Museum itself is fighting Thomas Jaffe, John's half brother, accusing him of "malice and a desire to destroy the relationship between the Friedes and the museum" City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a court challenges accusing Thomas of trying to block a $3.7 million dollar payment which was promised by the Friede family for promotion and study of the art collection.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a court challenge that accuses John Friede's half brother of "malice and a desire to destroy the relationship between the Friedes and the museum" by opposing a $3.7 million payment to the de Young from Hall's estate. Herrera contends the half brother, Thomas Jaffe, has intentionally harmed the museum and public by trying to block the payment, which was promised by the Friede family for the upkeep, promotion and study of the collection.

The Ambassador from Papua New Guinea, Evan J. Paki who writes regarding the importance of the collection and imploring the parties not to sell it off. You can read the letter at african-arts.info

Delaney Bramlett's Estate in Dispute

From the Venutra County Star
A note of discord has sounded over the estate of the founder of the ’60s rock band Delaney & Bonnie and Friends.

Michele Bramlett, daughter of Delaney Bramlett of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, is suing for part of the estate that her late father left to her stepmother when he died last December from complications of gall bladder surgery.

Michele Bramlett believes her father was mentally unsound and unduly influenced by his wife, when he signed the 2007 trust. Lanier Bramlett maintains her late husband was of sound mind and writing songs up until his death, and charges that Michele Bramlett not around much and so had no knowledge about his state of mind. Lanier Bramlett says Michele lived in New York during the past several years and visited her father only a few times in a space of six years, so she had little opportunity to observe him.

The estate consists of Delaney’s Sunland ranch, the rights to his song catalog as well as his collection of guitars — some given to him by rock ‘n’ roll’s most famous artists. Michele Delaney and her siblings aren’t entitled to anything except what remains after Lanier Bramlett’s death according to the trust.

Michele Bramlett’s petition cites an episode in the early 1990s when Delaney signed away the rights to his songs. In 1996, he sued to regain those rights, and the case was settled in his favor after his attorney presented evidence Delaney suffered from alcoholic dementia and lacked the capacity to make such a decision, Michele Bramlett’s counsel.

The petition asks the court to determine if Bramlett’s trust, dated May 10, 2007, was “procured by means of fraud, duress, menace and undue influence, thereby rendering it invalid,” according to attorney Lang.

Bramlett was a singer-songwriter, with a some well known hits, like Superstar, Let it Rain, and Never Ending Song of Love, which has been recorded by over 100 artists. He produced and co-wrote songs for Eric Clapton’s debut artist and produced a number of notable artists like Etta James, Elvin Bishop, and others. In 2008 Bramlett released his first CD in six years, A New Kind of Blues on his own label, Magnolia Gold Records.

Differently Abled

The link between savant syndrome and autism is well established. This economists.com article called "Genius locus," points to a recent study that reinforces this conclusion. It says that as many as 30% of autistic people have some kind of savant type capability in areas like math or music. Autism symptoms like poor communication skills, and obsession with detail are also exhibited by creative types in science, engineering, music, and the arts.

The standard diagnosis requires three things: 1) impairment in social interaction, 2) difficulty in communicating with others, and 3) restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests. May experts believe that it is the third feature that is related to savant syndrome. Obsessional interests and repetitive behaviors give autistic people the edge in developing keen powers of observation and other skills.

I really like they way the article ends:

Nothing comes for nothing, it seems, and genius has its price.

Savant syndrome, then, is a case where the politically correct euphemism “differently abled” has real meaning. The conclusion that should be drawn, perhaps, is not that neurotypicals (neurologically normal) should attempt to ape savants, but that savants—even those who are not geniuses—should be welcomed for what they are, and found a more honored place in society.

From Greg Mankiw's blog a book recommendation:

A Different Kind of Boy by Daniel Mont
and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which I read and liked a lot. One caveat there is a spoiler alert on for some of the comments on amazon.

Speak for yourself later by writing it now

Why Do We Avoid Advance Directives?
By Paula Span

The day will likely come when your parent becomes to incapacitated to make choices about medical decisions. It could happen in ten years or ten months; you just don't know.

When it does you're going to want to know where the advance medical directive for health care is. Your going to want to know what your parents want you to do. You don't want to have to try and guess for yourself.

It’s startling how few Americans have advance directives. A Pew Research Center survey in 2006 found that only 29 percent of people had a living will; in 2007, a Harris study put the proportion with advance directives at two in five.

That can put both physicians and families in an awful bind. Sometimes, a hospital ethics committee has to get involved. Sometimes, courts and lawyers do.

If only the patient had left clear instructions!

So why don’t we?

One reason is that advance directives may be misperceived. People may equate such documents with limiting care, with pulling the plug. But that is only one (optional) aspect of it. Your living will can say anything you want, from pulling the plug in certain circumstances to including instructions to extend your life for as long as humanly possible under any circumstance. And anything in between.

Even with a directive, family members or doctors can challenge the decisions made on your behalf if they disagree. Your wishes will have a much better chance of being carried out if you spell them out clearly in your directive.

The rest of the article is here.

It is not complicated or expensive and many have forms you can do yourself. Utah's is here.

Susan Boyle hearts Donny Osmond

Most viewed video of all time. That girl's going to need some estate planning.

Chances are you've seen the performance of Scottish woman on a "Britain's Got Talent". Her beautiful voice may be in part due to her teenage crush on Utah's heart throb, Donny Osmond.

Boyle’s brother said she would listen to Osmond’s records over and over again, and practice singing. She had Osmond posters all over her walls, and she would lock herself in her room and sing his songs as loud as possible. She'd stand in front the mirror and sing until she achieved perfection.

People around the world can’t get enough of her. So far the internet clips of her recent performance are the most viewed ever and have recorded over 100 million hits.

Video Here

A Dinosaur of an Estate Plan

Michael Crichton, who was married five times, didn't provide for any of his ex-wives when he died last year. He provided for his daughter through a trust and he provided for his widow, Sherri, through a prenuptial agreement that limits her share of the estate. The author even stated in his will that he wanted the prenuptial agreement to be honored.

Who he didn't provide for his son who was born three months after he died. It is not known whether the author knew about the pregnancy. The omitted child is entitled a third of the trust according to portfolio.com. Now, even though she signed the prenuptial, she could be named the guardian over her young son's estate, which is valued in the millions and will continue to grow. Mr. Crichton left at least one finished novel and part of a second. They will both be published as part of a $30 million deal Crichton signed in 2001.

Special Needs Trust

Leaving an inheritance to a disabled child can create more problems than it solves. A disabled adult with as little as $2,000 in assets will be disqualified from government programs, such as Medicaid.

That inheritance will have to be spent before the disabled person can receive government assistance. If that person is institutionalized even a sizable inheritance can disappear quickly.

This can all be avoided with a properly drafted and administered special-needs trust.
You can create the trust and use funds to improve your loved one's life without endangering eligibility for government programs. They are usually drafted in such a way that they do not take care of the essentials, housing, clothes, or food, but to take care of supplementary and quality of life expenses, like education, recreation, computer equipment, music, books, etc.

There are approximately 50 million Americans who have a disability. Two-thirds of those people have disabilities that are severe. Having a special needs trust creates a more secure future for these individuals. Any parent can establish this kind of trust and you don't have to be wealthy. A parent can set up a special needs trust for disabled child and contribute to it over time. Should they pass away suddenly the trust would continue to function without interruption.

If you are worried about not being around forever to help and protect a special needs child, you should contact a qualified attorney to get it going.

Heavenly Dogs

Do Dogs Go To Heaven?

Wes Bedloe working to stop Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes

The Oklahoman founder of a national watchdog group for nursing homes on Thursday called state and national governments to action to change how substantiated abuse cases are cited and how they influence the rating of nursing homes on the federal Medicare.gov Web site.

Wes Bledsoe, founder of A Perfect Cause, says that because families of nursing home residents rely heavily on this rating system, the information there needs to be accurate and complete, he said. Otherwise, the whole system should be taken away.

According to state inspection reports, Oklahoma nursing homes were ranked among the best in the nation. The truth is, the state led the nation not in quality of care, but in corruption.

FBI wiretaps caught the state's top nursing home official demanding kickbacks in return for doctoring nursing home reports for their owners.

The bribery convictions were vindication for relatives and advocates for the elderly who had been warning federal officials about the corruption in Oklahoma's nursing homes for years. According to a Congressional report, of the 393 nursing homes in Oklahoma, 68 facilities — more than one out of every six — had a violation that caused actual harm to nursing home residents or placed them at risk of death or serious injury.

Wes Bledsoe's grandmother, Eunice Allen, died a week after the corruption scandal broke. Inspectors had repeatedly cited the nursing home, Southern Oaks Manor, for harming patients, but little was ever done. His grandmother died of gangrene, and the family later discovered the the "doctor" who signed of on her care was not a physician.

Pass allong the collectible plates

If you're a collector who's going to die someday, you might want to read this at Huffpo.

Lot's of good advice for collectors.

Keep accurate records. The historical record will boost the value of your collection.
Make sure you can document your ownership.
Your children will want to sell what they inherit and selling is very expensive. They may get as little as 20% of sales proceeds.
Have it appraised and provide for estate tax payments if required.
Consider charitable contributions in your planning.

From Brigge's Website brigge.com

# 33% of high net worth individuals with assets greater than $10 million are serious collectors
# An average of as much as $76 billion in art holdings may be transferred between generations each year
# More than 65% of assets, including art holdings, in private hands face liquidity problems
# In 2007 - 2008, Sotheby’s and Christie’s sold more than $14 billion in art in antiques – almost half of that was attributed to estate sales