Michigan Bar Journal Review of Trial & Heirs

The State Bar of Michigan’s montly journal has recently reviewed our book, Trial & Heirs:  Famous Fortune Fights! .  Here are some of the highlights: After reading Trial & Heirs, I am convinced that I need an estate plan. It’s time to get serious about, you know, death.  Danielle and Andrew Mayoras, Michigan estate-planning attorneys who are married to each other, have written a lighthearted book. But a reader can’t miss what they’re really talking about: the dreaded D-word. Isn’t the whole point of estate planning to plan for your own inevitable death? Luckily, the Mayorases probably agree with Bugs Bunny: “Don’t take life too seriously; no one gets out alive.” The whole point of estate planning is to control your property from the beyond. Or, if the decedent (legalese for dead person) is a bit more altruistic, to lessen the pain of death, taxes, and unnecessary disputes for survivors. And most disputes are avoidable. In fact, “Avoid a family fight!,” a sidebar in every chapter, is one of the more important features of this book. We all know nice people from loving families who, after the death of a parent, suddenly became greeneyed monsters. These sidebars discuss, very briefly, how to slay the monster—or, better yet, avoid the monster’s appearance altogether. The authors offer tips, some obvious and others not, for avoiding disputes. In one sidebar, for example, the tip is to avoid fighting because of the legal fees the estate will incur (and this from two lawyers!). The authors give two examples: the Johnson & Johnson legacy, which took 210 lawyers, 22 law firms, and $24 million in fees (the wife, a former chambermaid, took $300 million); and the Leona Helmsley estate, which was settled between her grandchildren and her dog (Trouble, the dog, took $2 million). Mere mortals like you and me needn’t worry about estates of that size, but everyone should be concerned about the emotional costs of family fights. And family fights result from poor estate planning. Where there is uncertainty in a will or estate plan, there will be unrest. Where there are gaps, there will be greed. And where there are mistakes, there will be fights. * * * If you are an estate-planning lawyer, you shouldn’t read this book. Do read, however, the “official disclaimer” on the first page; it’s clever. But consider buying the book in bulk as gifts for your clients or as a marketing tool. You’ll have to accept the overuse of exclamation points, the overdone design, and the celebrity caricatures that are not all recognizable.  But remember that an informed client is a better client, and a client who understands some of your language is one who is easier to talk to. I bet you can get a quantity discount from the publisher. What do they mean too many exclamation points?!?!  How dare they?!!!!  We would never! ever! use . . . well, you get the point. Seriously, if you’d like to read the whole review, here it is . By Andrew W. Mayoras and Danielle B. Mayoras, co-authors of Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights! and husband-and-wife legacy expert attorneys.  As educators across the United States through speaking engagements, print, broadcast, and social media, Danielle and Andrew consistently draw rave reviews and are in high demand.   Email them at contact@trialandheirs.com .

Read more here:
Michigan Bar Journal Review of Trial & Heirs

The Elvis Presley Conspiracy (Part IV): What does it all mean?

Many people have contacted me wondering about the final installment in The Probate Lawyer Blog’s coverage of Eliza Presley and her efforts to prove she’s telling the truth about The Elvis Presley Conspiracy.  Here are the prior installments to refresh your memory.  I promised I would share my personal thoughts about Eliza’s DNA and other evidence.  Now I am able to report that I have read all of Eliza’s reports from the Paleo-DNA Laboratory in Ontario, Canada, which analyzed the DNA.  In fact, it’s only one of many labs that have examined the DNA at different times.  But it’s the only lab to have issued reports about all the various samples. This Paleo-DNA lab reports show: Eliza and “Jesse” are “1.6 x 10 [to the fifth power] times more likely to be half-siblings as compared to an untested, unrelated person of the general population.  These statistics indicate that these two individuals are likely to be biologically related as half-siblings sharing one parent.”  The report shows a match of 9 out of the 13 “loci” tested. The likelihood of Jesse being Eliza’s father is zero (apparently 11 out of 13 matching “loci” is needed for that). Jesse and Brenda Smith [the recognized maternal first cousin of Elvis] are 418 times more likely to be related than someone from the general population, suggesting they are biologically related.  6 out of 13 “loci” match. Jesse and Donna Presley [the recognized paternal first cousin of Elvis] are 45.7 times more likely to be related than the general public, again indicating they are likely to be biologically related.  5 out of 9 “loci” match. Eliza and Donna Presley are 31.95 times more likely to be related, so once again, they are likely to be related.  5 out of 9 “loci” match. The 2002 FOX TV Jesse sample was a 100% match with the 2008 Jesse sample (the pink envelope sent to Eliza).  All 13 out of 13 “loci” match. The matching number of “loci” determines if there is a genetic match of kinship.  The closer the relationship between people tested means more “loci” will match.  Each person would match himself or herself 100%, and no one else (unless there was an identical twin). With these reports, there are way too many matching “loci” for all of this to be a coincidence. These reports show that Eliza and the person now referred to by many as “Jesse” are half-siblings, and Jesse in turn is biologically related to the known cousins on both sides of the family tree to Elvis Presley.  Because Elvis never had any full siblings (other than a twin, Jessie, who was stillborn), no one else could match cousins on both sides but Elvis himself.  Think about it — who else is related that close to your cousins on both sides of your family?  Only you and your siblings.  Even your children and parents wouldn’t match as close because they only share half of your DNA.  And I’m not the only one who read the reports and came to this conclusion.  Suzanne Stratford did another report for FOX 8 TV News about Eliza’s DNA evidence, which you can watch here .  This report concludes that the samples do match. Eliza also sent the results to another independent DNA company to verify the results.  The lab owner, Dr. Donald Yates, said publicly that the DNA supported Eliza’s claim and that Jesse had to be Elvis.  And yes, he said, this means that Elvis is alive.  Here’s a Memphis newspaper article about it. Does this mean the world is ready to believe Eliza? Not quite yet.  Elvis’ death is a ”truth” that has been accepted for more than 30 years.  Eliza is literally trying to rewrite history.  She’s going to need absolute, undeniable proof before she can garner widespread acceptance.  But, she’s spent too many years of her life battling those who don’t want the truth to come out to stop now. While the evidence I’ve seen is strong and compelling, I believe the public will need to see something more direct and concrete to prove a conspiracy this strong.  Relying on blind samples provided by cousins, outside of the court process, is not enough to change the history books. There are only two ways to do so. One would be for Lisa Marie Presley to come forward and provide a little saliva for a DNA test.  The attorney for Elvis Presley Enterprises said in the past that Lisa Marie won’t, because once she does it for one person, then she’ll have to do it for everyone claiming to be related to Elvis. The problem with that excuse is that Eliza is the only one who has ever presented enough evidence to convince a judge to reopen a Presley Estate.  No one else has gotten that far. Second, if Lisa Marie provides her DNA once, there would be a record of it and she wouldn’t have to ever submit it again.  The one sample could be tested against anyone claiming to be related to Elvis.  So why not do it? So far, she refused to cooperate when asked by the FOX TV News team in Cleveland, even though it would have quickly ended this entire debate.  In fact, Lisa Marie moved to London shortly after Eliza Presley’s lawsuit was refiled last August.  Eliza tells me that she will try to compel Lisa Marie to provide her DNA through the ongoing court case, but if Lisa Marie remains in Europe, that’s not going to happen. Which means there is only one other option to conclusively expose the conspiracy to the world.  Vernon’s grave would have to be exhumed and his body tested.  And while they’re at it, Elvis’ grave should be opened as well. I know, it sounds very distasteful, and I’ve asked Eliza about doing that very thing.  She doesn’t want to do it, unless she absolutely has to.  When I first asked her about that possibility, she said it was “unthinkable”.  I for one believe there is no choice if Eliza wants to prove she’s telling the truth … unless Lisa Marie Presley changes her mind and donates a little saliva. Exhuming bodies of famous people for DNA testing has been done before.  Here’s an article I wrote about famed football player George “The Gipp” Gipper .  His body was exhumed for testing because of people claiming to be heirs. In the book I co-wrote with Danielle Mayoras, Trial & Heirs:  Famous Fortune Fights !, we include the story of Sonny Bono.  A sample was taken from his body for paternity testing, based on a claim of someone who said he was Bono’s secret love-child.  Will Eliza’s journey come to this?  We’ll have to see.  Eliza Presley’s court case is back on track and scheduled to come to a head this summer.  Hopefully, Lisa Marie will reconsider her position and not force Eliza to do what she really doesn’t want to do — seek court permission to exhume Vernon’s body. Until that moment comes, we have to examine the evidence that’s there.  Is the DNA evidence foolproof?  No.  While Dr. Yates and others are prepared to say, under oath, that it’s definitive, there is the issue of proof in terms where the samples came from.   Eliza can establish the chain of custody showing how she obtained the samples.  But for people to accept it, they have to believe her tale about how she got the DNA. In other words, what if she’s making the whole thing up?  That’s something I’ve thought about at length (I am a lawyer, after all).  If Eliza invented all of this, and the DNA isn’t from Presley relatives but is really from her own cousins, and none of them are Elvis relations, then all of the following would have to be true: Jesse would have to be ”in on it,” because his DNA matches Eliza’s — so they really are half-siblings. That would mean either she or Jesse would have had to track the other down, despite their age difference, because Eliza was adopted as a baby and didn’t know
she had a brother. They would
have also had to track down cousins from both sides of Jesse’s family, which again would have been tough because Eliza was adopted. The would-be-scam would have been started back in at least 2001, because that’s when the Dr. Hinton book about Elvis being alive was published. The scammers would have had to fool Suzanne Stratford and her bosses at FOX 8 TV News (unless they’re in on it, of course), because they never would have done the stories if they thought Eliza and Jesse were committing fraud. They would had to have fooled Dr. Yates and his DNA company, as well as Shirley Mason (the graphologist), among many others — not to mention the Missouri Attorney General. Plus, they would have had to plan to submit the Jesse DNA to FOX 8 TV News back in 2002 and then wait to spring their master plan into action in 2008, because Eliza’s 2008 sample from the pink Elvis envelope and the 2002 Jesse sample that FOX 8 TV News had tested match each other.  Why begin a scam in 2001 only to wait until 2008 to see it through? Not to mention the fact that if this was all a master scheme to defraud the public, through a court proceeding, why would they have done it knowing that it would be so easy for their plan to fall apart?  Elvis Presley Enterprises simply has to march into court with the DNA of Lisa Marie, or either one of the two cousins tested for that matter, and they could prove in a snap that it’s not true … unless, of course, it  IS true.  In other words, if this was a fraud, it would be so easy for the “Presley” camp to disprove it that no one would think they could get away with it   Yet no one has come forward in the court case to stop Eliza. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy how they could have pulled all this off if it was a giant scam.  As hard as it was for me to believe, as an attorney, that Elvis may actually be alive, I find it much more believable that all this evidence is legitimate than Eliza and several others having engineered this entire scam years ago, knowing that it would involve testing of DNA.  But again, no one will believe it for certain unless Lisa Marie Presley cooperates or Vernon’s body is exhumed.  That will silence all the doubters.  There would be no way to fake that DNA. Stay tuned until this summer.  That’s when the real fun begins. [This is the fourth article in a four-part series covering the Eliza Presley case.  You can read Part I here ,  Part II here and Part III here ] Posted by:  Author and probate attorney Andrew W. Mayoras, co-author of Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!   and co-founder and shareholder of  The Center for Probate Litigation and  The Center for Elder Law  in metro-Detroit, Michigan, which concentrate in probate litigation, estate planning, and elder law.  You can email him at awmayoras @ brmmlaw.com.

Read more here:
The Elvis Presley Conspiracy (Part IV): What does it all mean?

Magazine Article: Lessons of Famously Bad Estate Planning

The May 2010 issue of Insurance News Net Magazine, written for insurance and other financial professionals, has a great feature on how lessons drawn from famous estate screw-ups can help promote proper estate planning.  (Gee, that sounds familiar.)  Co-author of Trial & Heirs:  Famous Fortune Fights !, Danielle Mayoras, was quoted extensively in the article, and several stories and lessons from our book were featured in the story.  Here’s the beginning of the article: Admit it: You can’t resist celebrity news. You’re standing at the grocery checkout behind someone who still uses checks, and then you notice the gossip rags. You can’t help but look and shake your head: “Tiger Woods did what? Brad wants to remarry Jennifer? Kirstie Alley is obese—again?” Let’s face it—celebrity foibles are even more enticing than are the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups calling your name. Sex might sell, but silliness does too. And celebrity screw-ups can help sell one of the most unsexy things out there: estate planning. Sure, people know they should have a will, but if you tell them about the many celebrity disasters that have ensued because of the absence of a will, you’re likely to grab clients’ attention. Guitar great Jimi Hendrix died without a will in 1970, setting up a family fight that would end up in court more than 30 years later. His father, Al, had cut Jimi’s brother out of the estate and left the Hendrix legacy in control of Al’s adopted daughter, Janie, from his second marriage. And even though Al had built an $80 million business called Experience Hendrix, he reportedly still did not complete Jimi’s grave site. Odds are good that Jimi Hendrix would not have expected these turns of events, but he had no say in the matter because he did not leave a will. Because of undefined intent, the celebrity universe is filled with questionable handling of legacies. Sometimes it is not failure but overwhelming success that generates criticism, as in the Bob Marley case. The Marley estate in 2009 signed a deal with a private-equity firm to sell merchandise worldwide to generate as much as $1 billion, prompting some to ask if that is what Bob Marley would have wanted. Forbes, for example, asked, “Could this be commercial overkill for the Rastafarian whose spiritual songs about social injustice, hope, and redemption have become anthems for billions of fans, from Marrakech to Tokyo, and will it alienate them?” Here’s a link to the full story in the magazine .  Remember, using stories of celebrity estate battles is a great way to motivate family members and clients to do the proper planning! By Andrew W. Mayoras and Danielle B. Mayoras, co-authors of “Trial and Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!” and husband-and-wife legacy expert attorneys. As educators across the United States through speaking engagements, print, broadcast, and social media, Danielle and Andrew consistently draw rave reviews and are in high demand. Email them at  contact@trialandheirs.com .

Read more here:
Magazine Article: Lessons of Famously Bad Estate Planning

Michael Jackson Estate’s record deal raises questions

The Probate Lawyer Blog featured this article about the Michael Jackson Estate several weeks ago, posing the question of whether it is ethical for estate executors to seek a 10% fee for certain business deals they reach for such a high-profile estate.  It’s especially problematic when you factor in that one of the executors was Michael Jackson’s attorney. Well, this attorney, John Branca, and his co-executor, John McClain (a music executive), just hit the mother-load.  It was widely reported yesterday that they brokered a deal worth up to $250 million dollars (that’s right — one quarter of a billion dollars!).   What was the deal for?  Sony announced a seven-year distribution agreement for unreleased music recorded by the late King of Pop (as well as related video footage).  Yes that means that Branca and McClain earned $12.5 million each for one deal. Why do we question this?  For several reasons, actually.  First, it’s the job of executors to bring in as much money as possible for an estate that has earning potential like this estate has.  They shouldn’t need a 10% incentive to do the job they’re required by law to do. Second, Branca, reportedly, is the attorney who prepared the will and trust that named him as the co-executor and co-trustee.  Because of these documents that he created, he just made $12.5 million — in addition to the other fees he’s already earned (and will continue to earn). Would it be ethical for an attorney to create a will for a client to sign that leaves $12.5 million to that attorney as a direct beneficiary?  In most cases, no, it wouldn’t.  So why is this attorney allowed to earn that much as an executor fee? Finally, there’s the issue which we discuss in our book, “ Trial & Heirs:  Famous Fortune Fights !”, that Michael Jackson’s Trust wasn’t funded properly.  If it had been, then his estate would have been kept out of court and handled in private.  It’s also entirely possible that his trust document (which hasn’t been released to the public) may have specified what compensation the trustees would have received.  IF that’s the case (just speculating here), then Branca and McClain wouldn’t necessarily have been able to receive this percentage fee.  But, because Jackson’s Trust wasn’t properly funded, thereby requiring it to pass through the probate court process, it opened the door to allow this type of fee to be approved by the judge (again, if the trust document addressed their compensation, which isn’t unusual).  And the judge did approve the executors’ 10% fee in this case. A properly-used estate plan would have bypassed court entirely.  Jackson’s estate plan didn’t do that.  The attorney who prepared that estate plan now just earned tens of millions of dollars because of that estate plan.  And it’s all legal.  But is it ethical? Some feel it is.  After all, Branca is a respected entertainment lawyer and McClain is an experienced music executive.  They have the expertise to broker deals like this.  And clearly, judging by the amount of money they’ve brought into the estate, they’re good at what they do.  And Michael Jackson’s heirs are benefiting from their expertise. If it’s standard to compensate entertainment industry experts with this type of fee, why shouldn’t Branca and McClain earn what may be considered fair compensation in that line of business?  There is some merit to this position.  After all, Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson, spent months battling McClain and Branca in court over this estate (until she hired a new attorney, at which time she changed her position).  Yet she didn’t object to their 10% fee.  If a primary beneficiary of Michael’s estate didn’t object to this generous fee, why should anyone else? What do you think? Posted by:  Andrew W. Mayoras & Danielle B. Mayoras, co-authors of Trial & Heirs :  Famous Fortune Fights! and co-founders of  The Center for Probate Litigation and  The Center for Elder Law  in metro-Detroit, Michigan, which concentrate in probate litigation, estate planning, and elder law.  Andrew & Danielle are husband and wife attorneys, professional speakers and consultants across the country.

Read more here:
Michael Jackson Estate’s record deal raises questions

Motion Magazine book review of Trial & Heirs

Review of “Trial & Heirs:  Famous Fortune Fights!” by Motion Magazine, part of LegalNews.com: Anna Nicole Smith, Ray Charles, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger …  what do they all have in common? They were all celebrities, they’re no longer among the living, and they all can teach us a lesson. At least according to husband and wife legacy expert attorneys Andrew W. Mayoras and Danielle B. Mayoras, authors of “Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!” The book dishes out drama using celebrity cases to highlight the importance of proper estate planning. The Mayorases compiled and researched these high-profile celebrity cases with Danielle, who specializes in estate planning education, taking on the title of “Queen of Heirs” while Andrew used his probate litigation experience as “King of Trials.” Satisfying readers’ voyeuristic side with the engaging stories of celebrity heir in-fighting isn’t the book’s only draw. Featured on The Rachael Ray Show, WGN Chicago, and Forbes.com, “Trial & Heirs” can be utilized by those seeking to spark the dreaded family discussion about planning for a loved one’s passing. “We have tips to avoid family fights and we have ideas to spark family discussion,” Danielle says of the book. “So not only is it a good tool for the general public, but the goal was to give professionals a vehicle to start conversations with their clients…they can talk about Princess Di and Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix…really start the conversation.” And while the book provides readers with titillating true tales of celebrity courtroom cattiness at its very best, it also details how problems can be avoided. In addition, definitions of legal terminology commonly used in estate planning are placed strategically throughout the book. “I think there’s a sensationalism in our culture where there’s this celebrity stardom everybody wants to read about,” Danielle says.“We wanted to take that sensationalistic or tabloid aspect to kind of fool people. They might be reading it for the tabloid aspect but they don’t realize initially that they’re getting taught and they’re learning.” But what can these celebrity stories teach the everyday person? “Celebrities’ families are fighting about the same issues,” Andrew points out. “My clients fight about the exact same issues that are in the book. “Simple common mistakes the celebrities make are the same mistakes we see everyday people making,” he adds. “Different dollar figures, but the concepts apply to everybody.” The response to “Trial & Heirs,” which came out in November, has been amazing, according to the authors. “We’ve had attorneys from around the country contact us and say, ‘I want to buy these in bulk and provide them to my clients,’” Danielle explains. “It’s a great tool for attorneys to be able to turn over – especially if they have a stubborn client and maybe the client has a situation like one of the celebrities in the book – to say, ‘By the way, take a look at this case.’” According to Andrew, “One of the principal themes we keep saying in the book is ‘Don’t do it yourself…You need a good attorney.’ “The book has tips to find a good attorney and things to talk about with your attorney,” he says. “It’s really a call to action for people to find and work with a good attorney because too many people try to do it themselves and that’s what leads to a lot of the celebrity mishaps that we cover in the book.” Tabloid stories and their juicy details aside, the book provides insight into the oftentimes taboo world of estate planning. “It’s a way to get people to open their eyes and think about these things and have family discussions,” Andrew says. “A lot of these family fights can be prevented if people are proactive and they can avoid a lot of the heartache.” By Christine L. Mobley You can read the article here.   By Andrew W. Mayoras and Danielle B. Mayoras, co-authors of “Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!” and husband-and-wife legacy expert attorneys. As educators across the United States through speaking engagements, print, broadcast, and social media, Danielle and Andrew consistently draw rave reviews and are in high demand. Email them at contact @ trialandheirs.com.

Read more here:
Motion Magazine book review of Trial & Heirs

Heritage book review of Trial & Heirs

There was a great book review of Trial & Heirs:  Famous Fortune Fights! that came out Friday.  Here’s a portion of it: “If you do nothing else of consequence for your life in 2010, make a will.” According to University of Michigan graduates Andrew and Danielle Mayoras, both attorneys, two-thirds of Americans don’t have one. I do, and my editor has a trust, but an informal poll in the Heritage newsroom at an editorial meeting proved that of the nine people sitting there, two of us had a will. And, truth be told, mine seriously needs updating. Reading this book has compelled me to do something about it in a smarter way than I had done in the past. The Detroit couple’s book, “Trial and Heirs,” will jump start you in the right direction, too. Not only is a fun read, but also an important one — one that should become the basis of family meetings everywhere. You’ll learn why it’s important for everyone to do estate planning. According to the authors, it protects families from fighting. They say the consequences of waiting to take care of it “someday” can be devastating. The authors take what is a very dry subject and make it not only educational, but also interesting. What’s nice is there’s not a lot of fine print to bog down readers in the process. By taking estate cases of famous people and boiling them down to situations to which readers can relate, this book belongs in the library of every American over the age of 18. You can read the entire review from Heritage Newspapers here . Posted by:  Author and probate attorney Andrew W. Mayoras, co-author of Trial & Heirs :  Famous Fortune Fights! and co-founder and shareholder of  The Center for Probate Litigation and  The Center for Elder Law   in metro-Detroit, Michigan, which concentrate in probate litigation, estate planning, and elder law.  You can email him at blog @ trialandheirs.com.

Read more here:
Heritage book review of Trial & Heirs

Shipping December 1st!

The 15% pre-sale discount will end on December 1st at midnight (eastern). Visit this page to get your discount code.

Loading Quotes…

Read more here:
Shipping December 1st!

Powered by WishList Member - Membership Software