Stock Splits and Changes in Securities in Probate

Probate attorneys frequently face issues dealing with the change of character of an asset included in a person’s estate plan. These issue typically occur when a person dies and the specified asset has either changed in character and/or value in terms of quantity and/or quality.

People often include their securities in their estate plan. Sometimes, we discover that a gift in a will of a specific number of securities (i.e., 100 shares of ABC stock) carries with it any additional securities acquired by the person after writing his will. This raise the question regarding whether the beneficiary of the specific gift is to receive only the specified number or all of the shares of that named stock. Questions also arise when a person owned securities named in a will but later sold some of those securities after the will was executed and purchased another type of security not specified in the will, but acquired as a result of the sale of the securities specified in the will. Read the rest of this entry