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Full-Text Articles in Law

Construing Wills And Trusts During The Estate Tax Hiatus In 2010, S. Alan Medlin, F. Ladson Boyle Oct 2010

Construing Wills And Trusts During The Estate Tax Hiatus In 2010, S. Alan Medlin, F. Ladson Boyle

Faculty Publications

Many estate planners have drafted wills and revocable trusts with dispositive provisions based on formulas. These formulas often use language based on transfer tax terminology. For clients who die in 2010, the language used in these formulas will be ambiguous, if not apparently meaningless, because Congress failed to re-institute the estate tax for 2010. The resulting 2010 estate tax hiatus will result in will and revocable trust construction problems for the estates of many decedents who die during the hiatus. Courts will have to use statutory and common law construction methods to attempt to determine the decedent's dispositive intentions. This …


Disclose - Disclose - Disclose - Longmeyer Distorts The Trustee's Duty To Inform Trust Beneficiaries, David M. English, Berry T. Turney, Dana G. Fitzsimons Jr. Jul 2010

Disclose - Disclose - Disclose - Longmeyer Distorts The Trustee's Duty To Inform Trust Beneficiaries, David M. English, Berry T. Turney, Dana G. Fitzsimons Jr.

Faculty Publications

The evolution of the law concerning the trustee's duty to disclose information to the trust beneficiaries, through cases like Longmeyer, creates new risks for trustees who are unaware of their obligations. Trustees will also face an increasing number of difficult situations as in Longmeyer as a result of an aging and increasingly infirm population. Although it can be a difficult decision to make under pressure, a trustee should give strong consideration to policies that favor prompt and complete disclosure even in difficult circumstances. Also, trustees should remember that the courts are available for their protection when confronted with genuine doubt …


An Empirical Assessment Of The Potential For Will Substitutes To Improve State Intestacy Statutes, Mary Fellows, E. Gary Spitko, Charles Strohm Apr 2010

An Empirical Assessment Of The Potential For Will Substitutes To Improve State Intestacy Statutes, Mary Fellows, E. Gary Spitko, Charles Strohm

Faculty Publications

This Article uses an empirical study to test whether, in the absence of a will, beneficiary designations in will substitutes provide reliable evidence for approximating decedents' donative intent in an intestacy statute. No previous scholarship has explored the relationship between will-substitute beneficiary designations and intestacy statutes. We set out to investigate public attitudes about will substitutes and determine if the public prefers current law, which ignores will substitutes when determining the disposition of a decedent's property passing by intestate succession, or a statutory pattern that takes into account beneficiary designations found in a decedent's will substitutes. We are mindful that …


Child Trust Fund, Christopher L. Griffin Jr. Jan 2010

Child Trust Fund, Christopher L. Griffin Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.