Law Commons^™

Current Issues In Life Insurance Planning, Lawrence Brody

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Practical Problems Encountered In Federal Estate And Gift Tax Audits, W. Birch Douglass Iii, Kirkland M. Kelley

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Making Retirement Benefits Payable To Trusts, Natalie B. Choate

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Estate Planning For Retirement Benefits: Selected Case Studies, Natalie B. Choate

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Planning For Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits And Iras, Louis A. Mezzullo

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Tax Lawyers, Ethical Obligations, And The Duty To The System, Watson

Scholarly Works

Perhaps the most elusive area of law is that of legal ethics. While the term itself is easy to define,' the subject all but defies codification because ethics, or morals (the terms are interchangeable), cannot be encapsulated by or in law. This is because law, in general, contains its own standard of validity on which there is usually clear societal consensus. For example, murder, rape, and theft are morally repugnant universally. Hence, punishment for any of these offenses does not impinge upon religious or individual autonomy because there is no ethical freedom to choose whether or not to engage in …

A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance? (Symposium), Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Proposal For Integrating The Income And Transfer Taxation Of Trusts, Robert T. Danforth

Scholarly Articles

Present law fails to integrate the income and transfer (i.e., estate and gift) taxation of trusts; a gratuitous transfer to a trust may be incomplete for income tax purposes (producing a so-called grantor trust, the income of which is taxed to the grantor), but complete for transfer tax purposes. Grantors create trusts that exploit two features of this tax law dichotomy: the grantor's income tax payments on trust income enhance the value of the trust by allowing it to appreciate in value income tax free; and present law provides no basis for subjecting this enhanced value to gift or estate …

Death By A Thousand Cuts: The Rule Against Perpetuities, Angela M. Vallario

All Faculty Scholarship

This article suggests the policy and social justifications against dead hand control far outweigh transfer tax advantages provided to wealthy settlors and the potential revenue expected to be generated by the abolishment legislation. The abolishment legislation may be readily adopted by other jurisdictions in light of the legislatures' failure to recognize the consequences of unlimited dead hand control.

This article recognizes that the Rule is complicated, and Rule violations present harsh consequences for practitioners and their clients. In fact, violations of the Rule, due to its complexity, have been held as an attorney error, not subject to a malpractice claim. …

Estate And Gift Tax Effects Of Selling A Remainder: Have D'Ambrosio, Wheeler And Magnin Changed The Rules?, Ronald H. Jensen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article traces the evolving judicial interpretation of the “adequate and full consideration” exclusion found in section 2036. Part III examines the proper application of the “adequate and full consideration” exclusion to simple sales of remainders such as those involved in D'Ambrosio and Wheeler and concludes that the holdings in those cases are indisputably correct. It then analyzes the possible planning opportunities these decisions offer, particularly in light of section 2702. Part IV examines the effect of the D'Ambrosio trilogy on spousal elections. This Part outlines the potential gift and estate tax savings this device affords and then considers how …

Do They Practice What We Teach?: A Survey Of Practitioners And Estate Planning Professors, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

This article presents the results of a 1998 mail survey sent to members of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section and to law professors teaching estate planning. The principal goal of the survey was to compare the opinions of practitioners and law professors concerning the importance of 31 estate planning issues and techniques. The survey also included an open-ended solicitation of issues deemed significant by the participant.

The survey found consistency between practitioner and professor responses with respect to techniques such as Crummey planning. Legal education appears to be effective in dealing with core principles. …

Muddling Along With The Federal Wealth Transfer Tax: A Survey Of Practitioners And Law School Professors, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

Recent efforts to repeal the wealth transfer tax system have prompted enormous discussion. In this Article, the author presents the results of his survey of members of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Law Section about this issue and other reforms which have been enacted or suggested.

Modern Coverture: Old Wine In Old Bottles, William P. Lapiana

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Tax Consequences Of Assigning Life Insurance - Time For Another Look, Douglas A. Kahn, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 furnishes the courts and the Internal Revenue Service an opportunity to close certain loopholes in the federal tax consequences of assigning life insurance. About twenty years ago, we published an article arguing that the tax consequences of assigning life insurance affords taxpayers unwarranted opportunities for tax avoidance. Since then, developments in the case law and Internal Revenue Service rulings have broadened the loopholes. In the update of our article, we show how the new tax law supports our original position.