DOSSIER · EST

Continuity & Consequence

What survives a person: business succession, fiduciary administration, and the long tail of consequences after a criminal or identity-theft event.

Brief stack

In this dossier

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EST-01 · 01

Buy-Sell Agreements and Business Succession After Death or Disability

8 MIN · EST

A buy-sell agreement decides who buys a departing owner's interest, at what price, and with whose money. Those three answers must work together, because they fail together.

Structure, valuation, and funding are one system. A well-drafted price clause with no funding produces a lawsuit, not a purchase.
Cross-purchase gives the surviving buyers a cost basis in what they acquire; a redemption by the company does not.
In 2024 the Supreme Court held in Connelly that insurance proceeds funding a redemption obligation count in valuing the company for estate tax.

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EST-02 · 02

Fiduciary Duties of Executors and Trustees: Loyalty, Records, and Distributions

8 MIN · EST

Fiduciary duties are enforced from documents, long after the decisions were made. This brief pairs each duty with the record a court will look for and the failure it exposes.

Fiduciary law is state law. Most states have adopted a version of the Uniform Trust Code, but the local statute and the instrument control.
Self-dealing is judged by the transaction's structure, not its outcome. A fair price does not cure a conflicted purchase in most states.
The duty to inform and report is what starts limitation periods running; a fiduciary who never reports keeps the exposure open.

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CRIM-01 · 03

Identity Theft Recovery: Reports, Credit Freezes, Disputes, and Documentation

9 MIN · CRIM

Identity theft recovery is a sequence, not a checklist. Each step produces the document or the report that unlocks the legal right used in the step after it.

The FTC identity theft report generated at identitytheft.gov is the key document; several federal rights are unavailable without it.
Credit bureaus must block information resulting from identity theft within four business days of a complete request under FCRA Section 605B.
Security freezes have been free nationwide for every consumer since the 2018 federal law, including freezes for children and protected consumers.

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CRIM-02 · 04

Plea Agreements and Collateral Consequences Beyond the Criminal Sentence

9 MIN · CRIM

A sentence ends. The consequences attached to a conviction often do not. This brief maps what a plea agreement gives up and how to inventory the aftermath before signing.

Federal pleas come in three shapes; only one binds the judge to a specific sentence, and only that one lets the defendant withdraw if the judge refuses.
The plea colloquy establishes that the plea is knowing and voluntary, which is precisely what makes it hard to undo afterwards.
Courts must warn non-citizens that a conviction may cause removal, and counsel has a constitutional duty to advise on immigration effects.

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EST-09 · 05

Succession for Farms and Illiquid Real Property: Keeping the Land Out of a Forced Sale

8 MIN · EST

Land is worth a great deal and produces very little cash. This brief sets out the federal relief provisions and the state title problems that decide whether a farm survives a generation.

Succession for land is state property and probate law with a federal tax overlay; the title problem is usually older and harder than the tax problem.
Special use valuation lets qualifying farm and business real property be valued at its actual use, subject to a long recapture period.
Where a closely held business is a large enough share of the estate, the tax on that interest can be paid in installments over many years.

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