Estate Planning

Big Time Conservatorship: Britney Spears.
Judge Reva Goetz in Department 9 at Los Angeles Superior Court, Central Courthouse granted a temporary conservatorship over Britney Spears on Friday, February 1, 2008. It is known that a conservatorship naming her father to manage her finances was granted...

"Hearst Sues Over Use of COSMOPOLITAN Name"
Reuters: "Hearst Sues Over Use of Cosmopolitan Name": Hearst Corp filed a $500,000 trademark infringement lawsuit on Monday against the developers of a $3 billion Las Vegas resort and casino using the same name as the publisher's well-known Cosmopolitan women's magazine...

More on Conservatorships.
A conservatorship is often a poor substitute for estate planning. With a proper estate plan in place including powers of attorneys, assets funded into a trust and so on -- the hassles of a court oversight for a conservatorship can...

TYC out of conservatorship
Naming Cherie Townsend Executive Commissioner, Gov. Rick Perry yesterday ended the Texas Youth Commission's conservatorship after a rocky year and a half. The Statesman offered these observations from the legislative leadership ("TYC out of conservatorship," Oct...

Hearst v. Hearst and Legal Malpractice
In the high-stakes Estates and Trust world of Suffolk County [think East Hampton, not Patchogue], this case was reported last week.  Plaintiff  John Randolph Hearst [of the publishing family] sued his attorney on the theory that he and his former wife "fraudulently deprived him of title and use of more than $ 20 million in real property...

Fannie and Freddie to go into Conservatorship
The WSJ is reporting that Fannie and Freddie will be put into a conservatorship, with the Federal Housing Finance Authority as conservator. So the plan is to put two gigantic and vital companies into a conservatorship that's unprecedented in both nature and size, and to appoint as conservator an agency that's been in existence for just over 5 weeks? And this is supposed to calm the markets?If we're going to nationalize the GSEs, just come out and nationalize them already.