Dominic Campisi Campisi is a major contributor to CEB's newly released California Trust and Probate Litigation . Here, he speaks to the new trends in estate planning and some of the drivers in the book's creation.
Litigation is a growth field in probate and trust.
The aging of the parents of Boomers is beginning to crest, with 7 trillion dollars at stake. Boomers, unlike their parents, are less forgiving of relatives, caregivers, fiduciaries and attorneys who fail to protect their expectancies. Tax law, despite a kinder, gentler IRS, is a minefield for practitioners, guaranteeing a steady source of disputes when tax realities crunch simple-minded estate plans. I had been teaching the estate and trust litigation program for CEB since 1981 and realized the need for a book to help the planner or general practitioner to evaluate potential litigation, to determine whether he or she had the expertise to embark on a disputed matter, and to provide the essential materials and forms. There were plenty of practice books out there, but none of them dealt with intertwined trust and probate issues and none of them provided a roadmap for the occasional litigator to determine whether he or she should become involved.