For eight years in the 1990s, Attorney Charles Ware hosted the extremely popular legal advice radio program "The Lawyer's Mailbox"; the Number One (#1)legal advice radio program in the Mid-Atlantic Region,on WEAA - 88.9 FM, Morgan State University Radio in Baltimore, Maryland.
www.CharlesJeromeWare.com

Friday, August 8, 2014

" GET ON UP ! " : JAMES BROWN'S ESTATE MESS--- POOR PLANNING

www.charlesjeromeware.com.    "Here to make a difference."

Charles Jerome Ware, Attorneys & Counselors, LLC, is a Maryland-based national boutique estate planning law firm. For an initial courtesy consultation, contact us at charlesjeromeware@msn.com,  (410) 730-50`6  or  (410) 720-6129. We can help you.

The great entertainer James Brown, known as the " Godfather of Soul ", died a  few years ago leaving an estate estimated to be worth over $ 100 million.  Brown, "the hardest working man in show business", left no estate planning for minimizing estate taxes; thus giving the government the opportunity to collect almost half of the estate which would pass under his will to his four grown children ( and their infant half-brother from a woman who claimed to be his new wife). The  "heir" issue over the "new wife" and infant half-brother is in litigation.

In James Brown's situation, a good estate should have included  (1) pre-arranged funeral arrangements ( burial of Brown's  remains was delayed for three months after he died); (2) unambiguously stated beneficiaries and what they are entitled to receive from the estate; and (3) a plan to minimize estate taxes and estate administration costs.

Contact us for an appointment to review your estate plan.

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