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06/24/2026

The Pied-à-Terre Tax signed into law May 27, effective July 1. An annual surcharge on any NYC home that isn’t your primary residence. Rates run 4% to 6.5% depending on value, and the city expects it to raise ~$500M a year from ~10,000 homes.

The Mansion Tax Hike effective after June 1. On a $25M purchase, the rate climbs from 3.90% to 5.325%. That’s $360,000 more in tax due at closing.

If you own, or are considering buying, a property above $5M in NYC, these are the numbers your tax attorney needs to see before you sign anything new.

06/02/2026

You can leave the state. The tax may not leave you.

At least ten states are rewriting the rules on their wealthiest residents — California, New York, Washington, Michigan, and more. The goal isn’t just revenue. It’s to keep the people who fund the budget from walking out the door.

Washington, long a no-income-tax holdout, just passed a 9.9% tax on households over $1 million. California is weighing a one-time 5% tax on net worth over $1 billion — including gains never cashed out.

Then comes the part few see coming.
Several of these measures are built to reach you after you’ve already left. California has floated a levy that follows net worth over $30 million across state lines. Moving to Florida or Texas may start the clock — not stop it.

The receipts explain why. From 2015 to 2025, California and New York each lost over $100 billion in income to outbound moves. Florida and Texas absorbed most of it. Rather than compete for the wealth, high-tax states are choosing to chase it.

If you hold real estate, a business, or a serious portfolio in one of these states, the time to plan is now — not after a measure passes.

The door isn’t locked yet. But the toll booth is going up.

💬 Should a state be able to tax you on your way out — or after you’ve already gone?

05/28/2026

Four firms fought.

Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey sued the government. Federal judges ruled unanimously that the orders were unconstitutional. First Amendment violations, and by March 2026, the DOJ dropped all appeals.

Nine firms pledged nearly $940 million in pro bono legal services supporting administration priorities, eliminated DEI policies, and agreed not to decline clients based on political views in exchange for being left alone.

The courts were clear, but the orders were unconstitutional, and $940 million had already changed hands.

FirstAmendment LawFirms LegalIndustry

05/27/2026

For decades, Adjustment of Status was the standard path to a green card for foreign nationals already in the United States.

On May 22, 2026, that changed.

USCIS issued Policy Memorandum PM-602-0199, declaring that AOS is no longer a routine administrative step — it’s an “extraordinary” form of relief, granted as a matter of “administrative grace.”

Officers are now directed to favor consular processing abroad as the default, and to require applicants to demonstrate “unusual or even outstanding equities” before approving domestic adjustment. The memo applies to all pending applications and new filings. H-1B and L-1 holders may be partially insulated by dual intent — but for family-based applicants, investors, and those on other temporary visas, the bar just got dramatically higher.

The law hasn’t changed. The agency’s discretion has.

💬 Should green card applicants already living in the U.S. have to leave the country to finish the process?

LegalTea LegalNews

05/22/2026

Estate litigation used to begin at probate. Not anymore.

A growing share of trust and estate disputes are now filed while the grantor is still living — guardianship petitions, trust contests, emergency motions to set aside recent amendments. The fight no longer waits for the funeral. It starts in the hospital parking lot.
The catalyst is almost always the same: a late-stage amendment. A revised trust signed in declining health. A new spouse added as beneficiary. A successor trustee swapped out weeks before a diagnosis. Each one opens the door to claims of undue influence, lack of capacity, and breach of fiduciary duty.

The strategy isn’t always to win — it’s to freeze. Emergency guardianship. TROs on distributions. Motions to compel medical records. Lock the assets down long enough that no one else can move them either.

Florida has become the preferred forum. Favorable trust statutes. Strong homestead protections. A growing population of high-net-worth residents relocating south. Miami probate courts are now hearing some of the most complex estate disputes in the country.

Modern estate planning is no longer just about death. It’s about defending the plan before it’s tested — no-contest clauses, capacity documentation, contemporaneous legal review of every amendment.
The will is no longer the final word. It’s the opening one.

💬 Should late-life trust amendments require independent legal and medical review to be enforceable?

05/20/2026

In 2015, Elon Musk and Sam Altman co-founded OpenAl on a single promise - build artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, not profit. By 2018, Musk was gone. By 2024, he was suing. And on May 18, 2026, a federal jury in Oakland delivered its verdict in one of the most high-profile corporate litigation cases in tech history.

After three weeks of testimony, two billionaires under oath — the jury ruled against Musk in under two hours. Not on the merits. On a technicality. The statute of limitations had run out.
Musk called it a “calendar technicality” and vowed to appeal.

The verdict is in. But the war? Far from over.

TechLaw

05/15/2026

You asked ChatGPT about your trust. A federal judge just ruled it’s not private.

In February, the Southern District of New York handed down the first ruling of its kind: conversations with a public AI tool are not protected by attorney-client privilege. Not work product. Not confidential. Fully discoverable.

The defendant typed his defense strategy into Claude. The FBI seized his laptop. The court let the government read every word. United States v. Heppner.

The ruling doesn’t just apply to criminal cases — it applies to your trust, your tax position, your family office, your divorce. Anything you’ve typed into an AI before calling your lawyer.

A $20 subscription doesn’t buy you privilege.

💬 Should AI conversations be treated like attorney-client communications — or like emails to a stranger?

05/13/2026

The prenup your parents signed wouldn’t survive five minutes in 2026.

Wealth no longer sits quietly in a brokerage account — it lives in crypto wallets, founder equity, intellectual property, and holdings spread across continents. None of it fits a standard template.

With $2.4 trillion in motion between generations, the prenup has quietly become one of the most sophisticated instruments in wealth preservation today — drafted alongside trusts, family offices, and tax counsel.

Not about doubt. About design.

💬 Is the modern prenup a personal contract, or a wealth preservation instrument?

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