Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Wills (24)
- Virginia (23)
- Trusts (22)
- Estates (19)
- Marital deduction (5)
-
- Estate planning (3)
- Totten trusts (3)
- Drafting (2)
- Legislation (2)
- Uniform Probate Code (2)
- Adopted persons (1)
- Age of majority (1)
- Charitable giving (1)
- Charitable trusts (1)
- Creditors (1)
- Curtesy (1)
- Cy pres (1)
- Deaccessioning (1)
- Descedents (1)
- Descent (1)
- Disclaimers (1)
- Distribution (1)
- Dower (1)
- Due process (1)
- Estate Planning (1)
- Ethical aspects (1)
- Families (1)
- Family allowance (1)
- Family constitutions (1)
- Family foundations (1)
- Publication Year
Articles 31 - 50 of 50
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Procedures For Terminating Small Trusts, J. Rodney Johnson
Procedures For Terminating Small Trusts, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
Trusts sometimes become too small for effective administration. This article discusses various provisions-statutory, common law, and drafting for terminating them. I.
Interspousal Property Rights At Death (You Can't Take It With You, But You Can Prevent Your Spouse From Getting Any Of It.), J. Rodney Johnson
Interspousal Property Rights At Death (You Can't Take It With You, But You Can Prevent Your Spouse From Getting Any Of It.), J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
One of the major issues in Virginia law during the past decade has been the matter of property rights upon the termination of a marriage by divorce. Now that the concept of equitable distribution has been introduced into Virginia law in order to bring about a greater degree of fairness into this area, it is time to direct the focus of law reform to a parallel issue interspousal property rights when a marriage is terminated by death. The importance of this issue to large numbers of Virginians is obvious when one stops to realize that, notwithstanding the dismal statistics on …
Wills, Trusts, And Estates, Twenty-Sixth Annual Survey Of Developments In Virginia Law, J. Rodney Johnson
Wills, Trusts, And Estates, Twenty-Sixth Annual Survey Of Developments In Virginia Law, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
The Virginia General Assembly continued its increased legislative activity in the area of wills, trusts, and estates during the past year by passing three major acts: Exempt Property and Allowances; Acts Barring Property Rights; and the Virginia Small Estate Act. In addition to these major bills, seven additional acts enacted by the General Assembly and four cases decided by the Supreme Court of Virginia involved issues important to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills and trusts. This article reviews these legislative and judicial developments, with emphasis on the three most important legislative enactments.
Fiduciary's Investment Duty - The Peril Of The Prudent Man Rule, J. Rodney Johnson
Fiduciary's Investment Duty - The Peril Of The Prudent Man Rule, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
The purpose of this article is ( 1) to report on the recent decision in Hoffman v. First Virginia Bank, 1 (2) to identify the several problems this decision has created for the public and for the bar, (3) to propose a statutory solution to these problems, and (4) to suggest an interim approach to these problems that drafters of wills and trusts might take while awaiting the passage of an appropriate statute.
The Danger Of Retaining A Will: A Virginia View, J. Rodney Johnson
The Danger Of Retaining A Will: A Virginia View, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
The majority of American jurisdictions still continue the original common law concept of a statute of limitations that begins to run immediately upon the commission of a wrong, as contrasted with the more modern rule that a statute of limitations will not begin until such time as the injured party actually discovers the injury or, in the exercise of due diligence, should have discovered the injury. Those jurisdictions adopting the modern approach disregard what they refer to as the "technical" approach of the common law rule in order to focus on more fundamental concepts of justice instead. The issue, as …
Support Of The Surviving Spouse And Minor Children In Virginia: Proposed Legislation V. Present Law, J. Rodney Johnson
Support Of The Surviving Spouse And Minor Children In Virginia: Proposed Legislation V. Present Law, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
This article will examine the various economic needs of the typical family during both the probate and the post-probate periods. The discussion will be presented under three separate headings which, it is hoped, will help to identify the major areas of concern. These three major areas of concern are: (I) a family allowance-to defray the ordinary and necessary expenses associated with the maintenance of a household for the decedent's family during the probate period, (II) a right to exempt property-to insure the continued possession by the decedent's family of those articles of personal property that are indispensable to the maintenance …
The "Plain English" Trust, J. Rodney Johnson
The "Plain English" Trust, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
Professor Johnson argues in favor of, and then provides an example of, a trust drafted in "plain English."
The Uniform Disposition Of Community Property Rights At Death Act: Virginia In 1979?, J. Rodney Johnson
The Uniform Disposition Of Community Property Rights At Death Act: Virginia In 1979?, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
The presence of community property in the estate of a Virginia domiciliary poses a series of problems that are being faced with increasing regularity by a growing number of Virginia attorneys. While Virginia has always followed the common-law system of property ownership, Virginia also adheres to the general rule that " (a) change of domicile from a state where the community property prevails to a commonlaw state does not affect the community character of property previously acquired".1 Thus, although Virginia's common-law system of property ownership will govern the property rights of married persons who have moved from a community property …
The Optimum Marital Deduction Survives The Tax Reform Act, J. Rodney Johnson
The Optimum Marital Deduction Survives The Tax Reform Act, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
Several years ago an article appeared in the pages of this journal which suggested that those attorneys who regularly focused on obtaining the maximum marital deduction in the wills they were drafting for their clients might be suffering from a form of estate planner's myopia. That is, they were losing sight of their ultimate goal of minimizing the total estate tax burden imposed on the husband's assets as they pass from him, through the wife, on to the ultimate beneficiaries. The danger foreseen was that, as an attorney employed one of the various formula clauses designed to obtain every possible …
An Attack On The Optimum Marital Deduction: Revenue Ruling 76-176, J. Rodney Johnson
An Attack On The Optimum Marital Deduction: Revenue Ruling 76-176, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
A recent development in the field of estate and gift taxation-the issuance of Revenue Ruling 76-156 may be an indication of a policy decision on the part of the Internal Revenue Service to clamp down on the increasing utilization of the estate planner's most flexible tool in the ·area of post-mortem estate planning-the disclaimer. Due to the potential importance of this ruling, it seems desirable ( 1 ) to deal with the ruling, itself, in some detail, ( 2) to see how the ruling might affect an estate planning concept suggested in these pages last year, and ( 3) to …
Drafting For The Optimum Marital Deduction, J. Rodney Johnson
Drafting For The Optimum Marital Deduction, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
While the marital deduction provided for by federal estate tax law may not necessarily be the controlling factor in planning the will of a married person, it is certainly one of the most important factors because of the sheer magnitude of this deduction up to 50% of the adjusted gross estate. A direct consequence of this importance is reflected in the fact that the marital deduction has become the most written-about topic in the estate planning area. Most of what has been written about this subject can be divided into the two following categories: ( 1 ) an explanation of …
A Single-Trust Marital Deduction Will, J. Rodney Johnson
A Single-Trust Marital Deduction Will, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
This article will offer a basic form that can be easily altered to respond to the needs of many clients who have a moderate estate and wish to take advantage of the estate tax marital deduction. For purposes of discussion, it will be assumed that the estate is $250,000 or less and that the client has expressed the following: "I want my wife to have all of the income from my property throughout her life and then the property should pass to my children. In the event that the income from my property is insufficient to meet my wife's needs, …
Simplifying The Martial Deduction Will, J. Rodney Johnson
Simplifying The Martial Deduction Will, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
One of the basic tenets of estate planning declares that there is no such thing as a typical estate and therefore there can be no such thing as a typical estate plan. Emphasis is placed on the unique character of each case and the positive need to tailor the plan to fit the client's total situation. Accepting the validity of the foregoing, however, does not mean that one must start from scratch in each case. Instead, the attorney who is trying to pare repetitious work to a safe minimum might develop a solution to the problem by having a series …
Disclaimers As An Estate Planning Tool, J. Rodney Johnson
Disclaimers As An Estate Planning Tool, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
Most lawyers are familiar with the importance and function of post-mortem estate planning. This article will focus on one tool that is being used with ever increasing frequency in all phases of the post-mortem estate planning process- the disclaimer.
Multiple-Party Bank Accounts Under The Uniform Probate Code, J. Rodney Johnson
Multiple-Party Bank Accounts Under The Uniform Probate Code, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
Although this article is intended as a summary of the Uniform Probate Code's provisions in the area of multiple-party accounts. it may be at least sufficient to suggest the much-needed certainty and uniformity which the UPC will bring to a confused and confusing area of the law. The beneficiaries of this advance will be the public, who will have another alternative to probate in appropriate cases, and financial institutions, who will have another service to market. For these reasons it is suggested that the banking community will want to lend its enthusiastic support when the UPC is introduced into any …
Joint, Totten Trust And P.O.D. Bank Accounts: Virginia Law Compared To The Uniform Probate Code, J. Rodney Johnson
Joint, Totten Trust And P.O.D. Bank Accounts: Virginia Law Compared To The Uniform Probate Code, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
Litigation involving the survivorship rights of parties to joint accounts has been before the Supreme Court of Virginia on ten occasions since 1955. These ten cases, plus one older one, constitute all of Virginia's case law on this subject. Instead of attempting a chronological analysis of the development of this case law, it is proposed to state such rules as now exist and compare them with the results that would be obtained under the new Uniform Probate Code. In addition, attention will be focused on the statutes that deal with the rights of parties and financial institutions in deposit accounts …
Inheritance Rights Of Children In Virginia, J. Rodney Johnson
Inheritance Rights Of Children In Virginia, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
The rights of children to succeed to a deceased ancestor's property interests in Virginia are treated in some fifteen separate sections of the Virgina Code. When one considers that these fifteen sections were enacted over a period of 189 years, as the result of legislation introduced by various individuals who were at any given time focusing on a particular portion of this larger problem area without always taking into account the "spin-off' effect that their particular legislation might have on all of the other sections dealing with the succession rights of children, it is not surprising to find that there …
The Abolition Of Dower In Virginia: The Uniform Probate Code As An Alternative To Proposed Legislation, J. Rodney Johnson
The Abolition Of Dower In Virginia: The Uniform Probate Code As An Alternative To Proposed Legislation, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
Elsewhere in the pages of this issue the reader will find a discussion of some of the more important legislation enacted by the 1972 session of the General Assembly of Virginia. This article is concerned with one of the bills that did not pass-the bill to abolish dower and curtesy. Why all this concern with a dead bill, especially since the dower problem is one of long standing which has sustained attacks before? The answer is that the forces of opposition have grown stronger each year among Virginia lawyers. The Virginia Advisory Legislative Council has recommended the conversion of dower …
Recent Legislation, J. Rodney Johnson
Recent Legislation, J. Rodney Johnson
Law Faculty Publications
The 1972 session of the General Assembly was especially active in the areas of wills, trusts, and estates. Much of this legislation deals with fine points not affecting the average lawyer in his practice. However, the following items of legislation should be of general interest to the attorney whose practice involves probate work or estate planning, even though he does not hold himself out as a specialist in these areas.
The Statutory Regulation Of Inheritance By Nonresident Aliens, Daniel T. Murphy
The Statutory Regulation Of Inheritance By Nonresident Aliens, Daniel T. Murphy
Law Faculty Publications
The right of a nonresident alien to take real or personal property through testamentary bequest or intestate succession is regulated in this country by the laws of the states in which the property is located or the estate is probated. Many of the individual states of the Union demand that a potential foreign beneficiary establish, as a condition precedent to receipt of his inheritance share, compliance with an established statutory scheme. Often these regulatory measures require the existence of circumstances over which the alien, as an individual, has no, or at best minimal, control. The nonresident alien's ability to take …