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Recent Blog Posts
National Estate Planning Awareness Week, October 19-25, 2015
In 2008, Congress passed a resolution proclaiming the third week in October as National Estate Planning Awareness Week. The resolution noted that “Many Americans are unaware that lack of estate planning and financial illiteracy may cause their assets to be disposed of to unintended parties by default through the complex process of probate.” It is estimated that more than 50% of the adult population, roughly 150 million Americans, do not have an up-to-date estate plan to protect themselves, and their families’ assets.
Who Benefits From Estate Planning?
The purpose of estate planning is to develop a strategy that will maintain the financial security of individuals through their lifetime and ensure the intended transfer of their property and assets at death, while taking into consideration the unique circumstances of their families. All too often, we hear:
Scene From "The Incredibles" Captures the Plight of Many Denied Insurance Claims
I had the opportunity to watch the movie "The Incredibles" again this past weekend and one scene struck me as somehow familiar. The scene follows the lead hero character, Mr. Incredible, years later as he was forced into retirement with all superheroes because of "liability reasons." He is working a regular job under an assumed name, Bob Parr, as an insurance claim handler. In the scene noted above, Parr is forced deny a claim of his "client" who was an elderly female senior citizen claimant. Reverting back to his inner persona, he then feels bad and advises this claimant of some "tricks of the trade" and suggests some tactics for her to get her claim covered. If only life imitated art.
Often times, people unfairly assume that when they suffer a serious claim that their insurance company is going to help. That is not always the case. For many people who have had an insurance claim, whether it was a car accident, uninsured or underinsured motorist claim, health insurance claim, life insurance claim, fire or property damage claim or any other type of personal injury claim, people find that insurance claims' handlers are not "superheroes" in hiding trying to help them get their claim paid. In fact, as the claims' handlers see it, they are protecting their employer's interests by denying claims or paying as little as possible.
What Constitutes Bad Faith Insurance Practices under Wisconsin Law?
When you have been in an accident that has caused you to suffer either property damage or bodily injury, the last thing you need is for an insurance company to avoid living up to its obligations. Unfortunately, however, there are occasions when insurance companies deny benefits under an insurance policy without having a good reason to do so. When this occurs, you might have a lawsuit for bad faith against the insurance company.
Bad Faith in Wisconsin
To establish a claim against an insurance company for bad faith in Wisconsin, the insured must establish (1) the absence of a reasonable basis for a determination of a denial of benefits; and (2) knowledge or reckless disregard by the insurance company of the lack of a reasonable basis to deny coverage.
The first part of the standard is an objective test, which means that if you have been denied insurance coverage and are alleging bad faith, you must be able to prove that under the facts and circumstances presented, a reasonable insurer would not have denied or delayed paying the claim you made. The second element of the standard is a subjective test, meaning that the judge or jury must determine if the investigation of the claim made by the insurance company was properly done and if the results of the investigation performed by the insurance company were then subject to reasonable evaluation and review.
8 Reasons Why You Should NOT Draft Your Own Contracts
By Attorney, Denis Regan
The do-it-yourself mentality is often a good thing. It can save a lot of money, and can prove to be very gratifying. However, there are things that are best left to an expert. There are plenty of do-it-yourself contract sites out on the internet and just as many fill in the blank contract templates for everything from real estate to employment. While these documents might look like a quick and easy way to cover all the legalities of a particular situation, using them could actually cause more problems and oversights. Here are seven reasons why it is best to leave the drafting of contracts to an attorney.
1. Ligation is Expensive - while you might have saved money using a do-it-yourself contract, if you happen to miss any necessary verbiage and find yourself in a difficult situation because of this oversight, the litigation fees you will pay to undo the tangled web will likely cost you much more than having an expert draft the contract in the first place.
Wisconsin Businesses and Retailers Should Assess the Importance of Walgreens Decision in Pursuing Tax Refund Actions
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has paved the way for many Milwaukee businesses and retailers to take advantage of a number of benefits associated with the sale-leaseback transaction and business model. In Walgreen Co., v. City of Madison, 2008 WI 80, the Court made two major rulings: 1) the assessor was required to determine the value of leased properties under the income approach using the market rent terms rather than contract rent terms; and 2) the assessor could not include real estate's atypical financing or above market rent when assessing the property under the income approach.
In so doing, the Court also confirmed that assessors must use and adhere to the Wisconsin Property Assessment Manual in the absence of other conflicting law. (Id. at ¶3). What the manual did, and what the Court found, is that the analysis required "an income approach assessment of a leased retail property's fair market value of the fee simple interest to be based on market lease rates, not actual contract rates, as long as encumbrances to the property do not cause its leased fee value to fall below a market rate value." Id.
