James Wade & Herb Tucker Speaking at 32nd Annual Estate Planning Retreat

James Wade and Herb Tucker (along with Keith Lapayude) will be speaking at the 32nd Annual Estate Planning Retreat to be held June 7-9, 2012 in Breckenridge, Colorado. The session, entitled "How to Attack and Defend Expert Witnesses in Trust and Estate Litigation" will cover many topics including the selection and engagement of experts, deposing and cross-examining your opponent's expert and evidentiary rules regarding the qualification of experts. For more information, go to 32nd Annual Estate Planning Retreat.

Cost of Living Adjustments to Probate Code

Effective January 1, 2012, certain figures in the Colorado Probate Code were adjusted for inflation, pursuant to the 2010 addition of C.R.S. 15-10-112 to the statutes, but such adjustments are only made where the increase or decrease is in increments of $1,000. The Colorado Department of Revenue is supposed to release the numbers by February 1, but this was the first year for this requirement, and apparently they had not been informed by the legislature! The numbers that change are as follows:

Description	2011 amount	2012 amount
Initial intestate share for spouse where parent survives decedent	$300,000	$309,000
Initial intestate share for spouse where spouse has children from prior marriage	$225,000	$232,000
Initial intestate share for spouse where decedent had children from prior marriage	$150,000	$154,000
Supplemental elective-share amount	$50,000	$51,000
Small Estate Affidavit limit	$60,000 (as of August 2011, increased from $50,000)	$61,000
Exempt Property	$26,000	$30,000 per statute change, not COLA adjustment
Family Allowance	$24,000	$30,000 per statute change, not COLA adjustment

Note that the increase in the small estate affidavit limit to $61,000 creates a disconnect from the total of the Exempt Property and Family Allowance amounts.

Changes Effective January 1, 2012

The Exempt Property and Family Allowances increase on January 1 to $30,000 each for a total of $60,000 that a surviving spouse or dependent children may request from an estate under the Colorado Probate Code. The federal estate, gift and generation-skipping exemptions increase from $5 million to $5,120,000 as a result of inflation in 2012, but keep in mind that they may go down to $1 million in 2013 if Congress fails to take action. Happy New Year!