HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-06-09 (3)December 23, 2008
Ben Butler
Butler Law Firm
500 North Third Street
Post Office Box 1004
Harrisburg, PA
17108.1004
Dear Ben:
The reason I declared an estate size of $1.1 million in my petition to become the
administrator of my brother's (Patrick Joseph Fitzgerald's) estate was that I had been in
touch with another attorney's office prior to retaining your firm. That attorney's assistant
asked me to give her information on my brother's assets. I asked her "just the taxable
ones or everything?" I asked this because my brother's friends and co-workers had told
me that most of Patrick's intangible assets would not be taxable under the
Commonwealth's estate tax code. This assistant then "informed" me that "No property is
transferred in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that is not subject to the estate tax."
I then acted on this misinformation when completing the petition at the Cumberland
County Courthouse-declaring an estate of $1.1 million, rather than its taxable amount of
approximately $230,000 to $240,000.
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