Wills and Estates Insights

Analysis and practical guides on wills and estates.

19 articles, checklists, and guides on wills and estates law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

Wills and EstatesPowers of Attorney

Powers of Attorney and Advance Directives: A Practical Guide

A power of attorney and a health care directive are the documents most likely to be needed and least likely to exist, and the ones whose failure produces a guardianship proceeding that costs more than the entire estate plan. This guide covers both. It explains what a durable power of attorney does, why springing powers create the problem they were meant to solve, and the specific authorities that must be granted expressly because the statutory form withholds them by default. It covers the third-party acceptance problem, which is the most common practical failure, and the agent's fiduciary duties and recordkeeping obligations. The second half addresses health care documents: the proxy, the living will, the HIPAA authorization that is separate and necessary, and the POLST that operates differently from all of them, along with guardianship as the alternative when the documents do not exist.

Casey Scott McKayMay 19, 202626 min read

Wills and EstatesProbate

Estate Administration Toolkit: Petitions, Notices, Inventories, and Accountings

A working kit for administering an estate. Section A holds the diagnostic worksheets: an asset titling review that determines whether probate is needed, a small estate threshold check, and a solvency screen. Section B holds the opening documents: a petition outline, a letters order request, and an EIN and account setup list. Section C holds the creditor package: published and direct notices, a claim log, allowance and disallowance letters, and a statutory priority worksheet. Section D holds the inventory template and the estate ledger. Section E holds beneficiary communications and a personal property distribution protocol. Section F holds the closing package: an accounting format, receipts and releases, and a discharge petition. Section G holds a tax calendar with the portability and disclaimer deadlines. Section H collects the primary authorities.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 23, 202614 min read

Wills and EstatesProbate

Probate and Estate Administration Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A deadline ordered checklist for administering an estate. It opens with the first week, including the insurance call about vacancy that families miss and that causes the worst outcomes in this field. It then runs the titling review that determines whether probate is required at all, the simplified procedures worth asking about before filing anything, the petition and appointment, the estate account and ledger that protect the representative personally, the creditor notice that must include direct written notice to known creditors, the claim period and statutory payment priority, the inventory and appraisals that fix the basis step up, the four tax filings and the portability and disclaimer deadlines, and closing with releases and a discharge order.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 9, 20268 min read

Wills and EstatesProbate

Administering an Estate: A Practical Guide for Executors and Families

This guide runs an estate administration in order, from the week of the death to the discharge order. It covers what to do in the first thirty days including the insurance step that families miss, how to find out whether probate is required at all, the petition and appointment, the estate bank account and the recordkeeping that protects the representative personally, the creditor notice and claim period that sets the timeline, the inventory and valuation, the four tax filings and the portability election that is missed most often, selling property, dealing with beneficiaries, the accounting, and closing the estate with releases and a discharge order that ends the exposure.

Casey Scott McKayJanuary 26, 202629 min read

Wills and EstatesProbate

Probate and Estate Administration: From Death to Final Distribution

When someone dies, what happens next is decided by a set of rules most families encounter exactly once. This article explains what probate actually is and what passes outside it, when a small estate affidavit or summary procedure avoids full administration, how a personal representative is appointed and what duties attach on appointment, how creditor claims are handled and why the notice period is the single most important deadline in the case, how intestate succession works when there is no will, what a surviving spouse can claim regardless of the will, how the estate is inventoried, valued, and taxed, and how the administration is closed with an accounting and final distribution.

Casey Scott McKayJanuary 12, 202628 min read

Wills and EstatesDigital Estates

Digital Assets in Estate Planning: RUFADAA, Cryptocurrency, and Online Accounts

A modern estate contains assets that no probate court can order transferred, because they exist only as entries on servers governed by contracts the decedent clicked through and never read. The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, adopted in nearly every state, resolves the access problem by creating a priority scheme in which an online tool provided by the platform beats the will, which beats the terms of service. Cryptocurrency held in self-custody presents a different and harsher problem: there is no custodian to compel, and a private key lost at death is value destroyed permanently rather than merely inaccessible. This article covers the legal framework for fiduciary access, the practical mechanics of inventorying and transferring digital property, the drafting language that actually works, and the security discipline that keeps a plan from becoming a theft vector.

Casey Scott McKayDecember 23, 202526 min read

Wills and EstatesEstate Planning

Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer Toolkit

An estate plan is a set of instructions that has to work on the worst day of a family's life, when the person who wrote it cannot explain anything. This toolkit builds one in the order that matters. It starts with the inventory and the ownership question that determines which assets a will can even reach, then covers the incapacity documents that get used far more often than the will does, the core dispositive instruments and the choice between a will-based and a trust-based plan, and the funding step that quietly determines whether a trust does anything at all. Later stages cover beneficiary designations and the coordination failures that cause most unintended outcomes, planning for minors and beneficiaries who need protection, tax and basis planning at current exemption levels, business succession, digital assets, fiduciary selection, and what actually happens during administration.

Casey Scott McKayJune 2, 202514 min read

Wills and EstatesFiduciary Litigation

Will Contests and Trust Litigation: Capacity, Undue Influence, and No-Contest Clauses

Estate and trust disputes look like ordinary civil litigation and behave differently in ways that matter from the first filing. The claims are largely fixed by statute, the deadlines are short and often jurisdictional, the key witness is dead, and evidentiary rules designed for exactly this situation constrain what the survivors may testify to. The two dominant theories — lack of capacity and undue influence — are frequently pleaded together and proved very differently, with undue influence turning on a burden-shifting presumption that arises from relationship and circumstance rather than from direct evidence. This article covers the grounds, who may sue and by when, how no-contest clauses actually operate, the fiduciary claims that run alongside a contest, and the drafting and execution practices that prevent most of it.

Casey Scott McKayJune 1, 202526 min read

Wills and EstatesEstate Administration

Probate and Estate Administration: A Practical Guide for Executors

Serving as an executor is a job with fiduciary duties, statutory deadlines, and personal liability, undertaken by people who have usually never done it before and who are grieving. This guide walks the administration in order. It starts with the threshold questions: whether probate is required at all, which assets pass outside it, and whether a simplified procedure is available. It then covers opening the estate, the personal representative's appointment and powers, and the immediate tasks in the first thirty days. It works through the inventory, creditor notice and the claims process with its priority rules, the tax filings including the estate tax return and the portability election that is worth filing even when no tax is due, and the family protections that override the will. Later sections address distribution, accountings, closing the estate, and the disputes that most often arise.

Casey Scott McKayMay 10, 202526 min read

Wills and EstatesIncapacity Planning

Planning for Incapacity: Guardianship, Conservatorship, and the Alternatives

Guardianship removes a person's legal right to make decisions about their own life and gives it to someone else, which is why every modern statute treats it as a last resort available only where less restrictive alternatives will not work. The alternatives are substantial and most of them must be put in place while the person still has capacity — a durable power of attorney, a health care proxy, a funded revocable trust, a supported decision-making agreement, and beneficiary and payee designations that route income without a court. Where those documents do not exist and the person can no longer manage, the court process begins with a petition, a capacity evaluation, and a hearing at which the respondent has counsel and the right to contest. This guide covers the alternatives, when a proceeding is genuinely necessary, how one runs, and what a guardian must do once appointed.

Casey Scott McKayDecember 17, 202426 min read

Wills and EstatesTrust Administration

Trust Administration and the Trustee's Duties

A trustee holds property for someone else under the most demanding standard the law imposes, and most trustee liability arises not from bad investments but from failing to do administrative things nobody explained. This article covers what a trustee actually has to do: the duties of loyalty, prudence, impartiality, and disclosure as the Uniform Trust Code states them; how the prudent investor rule changed portfolio management and why an undiversified concentrated position is the most common surcharge case; how discretionary distribution standards work and what documentation supports them; the accounting and reporting obligations that also start the limitations clock; the modern flexibility devices — decanting, nonjudicial settlement agreements, directed trusts, and trust protectors; and the tax rules that make timing distributions worth real money. It covers the duties of loyalty, prudence, impartiality, and disclosure as the Uniform Trust Code states them, the prudent investor rule and the concentrated-position cases it generates, discretionary distribution standards, and the accounting obligations that also start the limitations clock. Later sections address the modern flexibility devices — decanting, nonjudicial settlement agreements, directed trusts, and trust protectors — and the tax rules that make distribution timing worth real money.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 24, 202425 min read

Wills and EstatesTrust Administration

Trust Administration Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Most trustee liability arises not from bad investments but from administrative steps nobody explained — a concentrated position held without a written analysis, distributions made without documented reasoning, and annual reports never sent, which leaves the trustee exposed for years instead of one. This checklist runs the administration: the first ninety days from reading the instrument through the statutory notices and the initial portfolio review, then the recurring obligations that make up the job. It covers the investment discipline the prudent investor rule requires, the impartiality tools available when income and remainder interests diverge, the distribution protocol that makes a discretionary decision defensible, the reporting that starts a one-year limitations clock, the tax elections that are worth real money, and the protections available to a trustee who wants finality. It closes with the protections available to a trustee who wants finality — beneficiary consents after full disclosure, nonjudicial settlement agreements, virtual representation, and petitions for instructions.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 14, 202412 min read