Law Commons^™

Perpetuities And The Genius Of A Free State, Joshua C. Tate

Vanderbilt Law Review

Legal history, like all history, is inevitably a speculative affair. No one can be sure what the editors of Justinian's Digest might have excised from long-lost works of classical Roman law; nor can one know for certain what went through the minds of certain justices of the U.S. Supreme Court in the mid-twentieth century when they formed and reformed their views on Roosevelt's New Deal. Of course, scholars can try to chip away at this uncertainty: great progress can be made through educated guesses and learned theories. But certainty about the past is reserved for those who lived in it. …

Probate Law Meets The Digital Age, Naomi Cahn

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article explores the impact of federal law on a state fiduciary's management of digital assets. It focuses on the lessons from the Stored Communications Act ("SCA'), initially enacted in 1986 as one part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Although Congress designed the SCA to respond to concerns that Internet privacy posed new dilemmas with respect to application of the Fourth Amendment's privacy protections, the drafters did not explicitly consider how the SCA might affect property management and distribution. The resulting uncertainty affects anyone with an email account. While existing trusts and estates laws could legitimately be interpreted to …

Unconstitutional Perpetual Trusts, Steven J. Horowitz, Robert H. Sitkoff

Vanderbilt Law Review

"I never can be thankful, Mr. Bennet, for any thing about the entail."t Perpetual trusts are an established feature of today's estate planning firmament. Yet little-noticed provisions in the constitutions of nine states, including in five states that purport to allow perpetual trusts by statute, proscribe ')erpetuities." This Article examines those provisions in light of the meaning of ')erpetuity" as a legal term of art across history. We consider the constitutionality of perpetual trust statutes in states that have a constitutional ban on perpetuities and whether courts in states with such a ban may give effect to a perpetual trust …

Agents In Secrecy: The Use Of Information Surrogates In Trust Administration, Lauren Z. Curry

Vanderbilt Law Review

Trusting another to look after one's best interest when money is at stake is difficult in many different situations. This is true in the area of trust administration as well. As with most areas of law and regulation, trust law addresses this concern primarily through the requirement of information disclosure. Information disclosure to trust beneficiaries has become a heated issue among trust scholars and practitioners. Interestingly, as fundamental as disclosure may be in trust administration, the duty to disclose is not precisely defined at common law and is far from uniform. This creates a profusion of problems for trustees who …

Individualized Justice In Disputes Over Dead Bodies, Frances H. Foster

Vanderbilt Law Review

In February 2007, the world had a ringside seat to a truly macabre fight. Under the glare of television cameras, Anna Nicole Smith's nearest but not dearest' battled in a Florida probate court over custody of her body. The parties agreed on only one point: "Anna Nicole Smith's appearance was a paramount issue to her." Yet, those same parties denied Anna Nicole after death the beauty she prized during life. Because of their protracted legal wrangling, Anna Nicole went to her grave a decomposed corpse in a closed casket. Anna Nicole Smith's tragic fate is by no means unique. For …

Public Independent Fact-Finding: A Trust-Generating Institution For An Age Of Corporate Illegitimacy And Public Mistrust, R. William Ide Iii, Douglas H. Yarn

Vanderbilt Law Review

Public distrust in the wake of corporate scandals caused corporate legitimacy crises for the companies involved and for the marketplace as a whole. The loss of trust has contributed to an environment in which traditional responses to allegations of wrongdoing and incompetence are less effective. Alternatively, organizations engage in "Public independent fact-finding" ("PIFF") by hiring public figures with reputations for integrity to conduct internal investigations and to report their findings to the public. This Article describes the role played by trust, reputation, and social legitimacy in the health of organizations and examines corporate legitimacy crises and traditional responses. Identifying factors …

Further Thoughts On Realizing Gains And Losses At Death, Joseph M. Dodge

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professor Lawrence Zelenak has put forth a detailed proposal' for repealing present Section 1014 of the Internal Revenue Code, which gives a decedent's successor a basis equal to the estate tax value of property at death. This rule, commonly known as the stepped-up basis (at death) rule, has been roundly criticized as producing an unwarranted (inequitable, nonneutral) income tax loophole, because the step up in basis without realization of gain removes the gain from the tax system entirely. Its repeal, therefore, offers a potential source of significant revenue. Moreover, Section 1014 aggravates the "lock-in effect"; that is, it inhibits rational …

Dying With The "Living" (Or"Revocable") Trust: Federal Tax Consequences Of Testamentary Dispositions Compared, C. Douglas Miller, R. Alan Rainey

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to examine the federal tax consequences of the revocable trust to the grantor and to his estate.Principally due to the grantor's power to revoke the trust and re-vest the trust assets in himself the federal tax consequences to the grantor are in effect, if not in cause, insignificant. The perception that creation of a revocable trust has no federal tax consequences,therefore, is at least to that extent essentially correct, and the discussion herein is merely a summary review of the tax consequences to the grantor upon the trust's creation and during its administration. Perhaps …

Concealing Legislative Reform In The Common-Law Tradition: The Advancements Doctrine And The Uniform Probate Code, Mary L. Fellows

Vanderbilt Law Review

This essay first sets forth the doctrine of advancements and includes a discussion of its suitability for a study of statutory reform and the purpose and origin of the doctrine. The essay then demonstrates how a presumption against finding an advancement that can be rebutted only by a writing showing a contrary intent operates as a practical repeal of advancements. Next, the essay explores the rationales of the drafters of the Uniform Probate Code(UPC) in repealing the advancements doctrine by subterfuge and analyzes the costs of reform by subterfuge. Finally, the essay recommends an alternative approach to reforming the advancements …

The Winds Of Change In Wills, Trusts, And Estate Planning Law, The Editor

Vanderbilt Law Review

The articles in this Symposium illustrate three different aspects of change. The essay by Professor Fellows provides an analysis and criticism of one very important change, the trend toward the use of a legislative rather than judicial forum to create new law. In the second article, Professor Rein discusses adoption and proposes a mechanism by which the laws of succession can be modernized better to reflect the social phenomenon of adoption,whether of children or adults, legal or equitable. Professor Miller and Mr. Rainey in their article examine the premises that have prompted the increasing use of a revocable trust rather …

The Fiduciary Responsibilities Of A Surviving Partner Acting As Executor Of The Deceased Partner's Estate, Sandra L. Randleman

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note examines the nature of the fiduciary duty in the situation in which an executor/surviving partner must decide whether to consent to a continuation of the partnership business after dissolution and in the situation in which the surviving partner has an option to purchase the deceased partner's interest in the partnership under the terms of a partnership agreement. After separately considering the nature of the fiduciary duties of an executor and a surviving partner, the Note discusses the degree to which the fiduciary loyalty that an executor/surviving partner owes the deceased partner's estate governs his decision on whether to …

Federal Estate And Gift Taxation Of Joint Interests: Planning And Policy Perspectives, Hugh D. Brown

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note will first provide a brief background outlining the incidents of joint tenancy which make it an attractive form of co-ownership under state law. This background section also will place joint ownership in the overall perspective of federal estate and gift taxation by pointing out the impossibility of achieving certain basic federal estate planning objectives in an estate composed primarily of jointly held assets. The Note will then analyze the specific provisions of the Internal Revenue Code governing federal estate and gift taxation of joint interests. This analysis will: first, focus on some of the legal problems generated by …

Current Problems Facing The Executor Taking The Section 2053 Estate Tax Deduction, Jay D. Christiansen

Vanderbilt Law Review

Section 2053 of the Internal Revenue Code allows the executor to deduct from the gross estate amounts attributable to expenses, indebtedness, and taxes. This Note will examine problems currently confronting an executor who is attempting to utilize the 2053 deduction. The first problem examined in this Note is the conflict in the federal courts of appeals regarding the deductibility of expenses incurred as a result of a sale of decedent's property. The statute,cases, and regulations in this area will be examined, and a suggested approach for the executor encountering this problem will be provided. The second problem considered is the …

The Educational Benefit Trust:Loophole Or Sinkhole?, John L. Van Cleave

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note indicates clearly that the likelihood of the court's upholding the tax advantages claimed to be available under EBTs is far from certain. More than an "element of risk" is involved in recommending that a client adopt an educational benefit trust, but does this require an attorney to avoid such arrangements? On the other hand, does an attorney owe an obligation to the legal process and to society to challenge the Service whenever it, in his opinion,has taken a position more favorable to the Treasury than intended by Congress in enacting the legislation underlying the matter in controversy? While …

Book Review, Neill H. Alford, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

For the decade 1960-1970, any available prize for the most stimulating product of interest to estate planners by an individual writer certainly should go to Dean Thomas L. Shaffer' for "Death, Property, and Lawyers." This is an imaginative and stimulating book. A practicing lawyer who gives close attention to Dean Shaffer's work should be aided in evaluating his relationships with his estate planning clients. Even if this lawyer cannot be brought to a detailed evaluation, he at least will be brought to the threshold of introspection. Dean Shaffer does not attempt to unravel the whole "psychological story" in estate planning; …

Income Tax Deductions For Estate Planning Fees, Stephen E. Gihuley

Vanderbilt Law Review

The need to engage the services of a lawyer may arise in a variety of situations, and the possibility of deducting the fees for a lawyer's services from the client's personal taxable income will ultimately depend on which one of several competing policies of the tax law is properly applicable under the particular circumstances. Taxpayers and their attorneys should be aware of the deductibility of expenses incurred for legal services rendered in connection with the planning of the taxpayer's estate. Such estate planning services include the drafting of a will, the arrangement of inter vivos and testamentary gifts, the creation …

Elliott E. Cheatham - Gentleman, Richard R. Powell

Vanderbilt Law Review

It was suggested to the writer that he write about Elliott E. Cheatham as a colleague in the field of legal education. This is but one aspect of his special preeminence, but any aspect of this man finds its ultimate foundation in his underlying and pervasive qualities as a gentleman. Kindly in the face of student stupidity, gentle in persuading his obstinate colleagues, loving in his more personal relations, the man embodies the best that can be connoted by the phrase "Southern gentleman."

Elliott E. Cheatham, Erwin N. Griswold

Vanderbilt Law Review

After a full career on the faculty of the Columbia Law School,Professor Cheatham has had a new career as a member of the faculty of the Vanderbilt University Law School. During this period, his writing has never ceased, and it is always lively and original.Elliott Cheatham has been one of the great legal scholars of our time. He has also been one of the great persons in law teaching. He has been a great inspiration not only to his students, but also to the law teachers who have tried to follow in his footsteps.

The Unitrust In Estate Planning: A Partial Panacea, Louis F. Comus Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

This note explores applications of the unitrust in estate tax planning.

Part II presents general characteristics of the unitrust, including its advantages and limitations.

Part III discusses the use of the unitrust as a marital deduction trust, including prescription for administration of the marital deduction unitrust in various situations involving different sizes of estates.

Part IV presents income tax considerations involved in the use of the unitrust, under subchapter J of the Internal Revenue Code. Finally, Part IV suggests amendments to the basic unitrust form for maximizing its effectiveness in estate planning.

Book Reviews, Herman L. Trautman, W. Harold Bigham

Vanderbilt Law Review

THE BEST OF TRUSTS AND ESTATES-ESTATE PLANNING

There are one hundred and four articles arranged in eight chapters entitled, "Estate Planning-A Panoramic View," "Using the Marital Deduction, "Income Tax Planning, " "Making the Most of Gifts,""Minimizing Administration Problems," "How to Handle Business Interests," "Arranging Life Insurance," and "Drafting Wills and Trusts." The citation and date of the original publication of each article is stated, and in many instances there is an addendum by the author which brings the article up to the date of the book. In addition there are excellent introductory commentaries by the editors at the beginning of …

Class Gifts Of Future Interests: When Is Survival Required?, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Because of recent significant developments, this article will under-take to deal with the requirement of survival in class gifts of future interests both with respect to the responsibility of a lawyer who plans an estate and with the problem confronting the courts in the many cases where either holographic wills are allowed or lawyers fail to discharge their professional responsibility concerning this litigious issue. By way of introduction, it will first stress the importance of a proper training for professional responsibility in this area. It will then attempt to provide a proper perspective for the courts to deal with the …

Restitution In England, R. H. Maudsley

Vanderbilt Law Review

So long as a constructive trust will be imposed whenever it is necessary to prevent unjust enrichment, the terminological question is unimportant. If a situation requires a trustee's duties to be imposed upon a constructive trustee, the English court will do that. It may be that this will be a trust which the "beneficiary" can terminate by demanding the property and in that situation the two views of the constructive trust coalesce. If the problem is one of tracing it into a mixed fund by claiming a proportionate share of the fund or of the property purchased with it, then …

The Use Of Business Property As Short-Term Trust Corpus, Robert Doty

Vanderbilt Law Review

A progressive income tax structure encourages the taxpayer with income above his consumption level to attempt to shift income to other members of his family group where it would be taxed at lower rates. The income which the taxpayer desires to shift may be in the form of compensation for services rendered by the taxpayer or of income from income-producing property owned by him...This article seeks to explore the extent to which the benefits of the short-term trust can be secured for this latter class of persons by utilizing business assets as trust corpus in the following manner: (1) by …

Legislation, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Estate Tax--Marital Deduction--Compliance With Revenue Procedure 64-19

In those cases where an executor or trustee is directed by the governing instrument to satisfy a pecuniary bequest or transfer in trust by a distribution of the property in kind,' with assets at values as finally determined for federal estate tax purposes, there is the possibility that the surviving spouse will receive property the fair market value of which at the time of distribution is less than the amount of the marital deduction.

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Voting Rights--Residence Requirements for Voting in Presidential Elections

It seems safe to conclude that the choosing of presidential …

Decedents' Estates, Trusts And Future Interests -- 1963 Tennessee Survey, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Three interesting cases represent significant developments in the laws concerning the distribution of amounts received by the administrator in wrongful death actions, two' of which arose under the Tennessee wrongful death statute and the other arising under the Federal Employers' Liability Act. The two cases arising under the Tennessee statute were problems of somewhat first impression,reasoned upon analogy, and the case arising under the federal statute resulted in the Tennessee Supreme Court overruling its prior decision.

Decedents' Estates, Trusts And Future Interests -- 1962 Tennessee Survey, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. DECEDENTS" ESTATES

A. Intestate Succession-Release of an Expectancy B. Wills C. Fiduciary Administration and Estate Planning

II. TRUSTS

A. Self-dealing-Purchase by Trustees of One Beneficiary's Interest

III. FUTURE INTERESTS

A. Alternative Gifts B. Class Gifts As in the past, the subject matter will be discussed under the headings indicated above. The developments of the year consist of court decisions only, as the Tennessee legislature was not in general session.

Perpetuities, Restraints On Alienability,And The Duration Of Trusts, Ralph A. Newman

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is no doubt that we must have some fairly well-defined standard for determining when a restraint on alienation lasts too long. There is need for only one rule directed to the ultimate objective sought the establishment of a limitation upon the period during which alienability may be postponed. This limitation of the period of permissible duration of the state of inalienability must apply to all interests of any kind, present or future, vested or contingent, legal or equitable, absolute or in trust. The test of suspension should be the practical possibility, as well as the legal possibility, of alienation. …

Decedents' Estates, Trusts And Future Interests -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The developments in these areas of Tennessee law during the first part of the year 1961 have been discussed heretofore in a recently published article.' In order to accommodate the transition from a fiscal year to a calendar coverage, however, this article will be limited to those appellate court opinions published after May 31 and not later than December 31,1961. During this period the General Assembly of Tennessee was not in session.

Tax Planning Of The Administration Of An Estate, Sherwin P. Simmons

Vanderbilt Law Review

In this article, the author points out that the tax hazards and tax saving opportunities presented in the administration of an estate cannot be disregarded. With this in mind, he discusses in detail the filing of a decedents final income tax return, the various elections and alternatives available to the executor in the tax planning of the estate, the tax consequences flowing from the executors management of the estate, and the problems encountered in terminating the estate and paying the tax.

Decedents' Estates, Trusts And Future Interests -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The subject matter will be discussed under the three headings indicated above. The developments of the year' include court decisions and relevant new legislation enacted by the Eighty-second General Assembly of the State of Tennessee. Perhaps the most significant development of probate law in Tennessee during the period was the enactment of the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act, referred to generally as the "pour-over" statute. Very likely this statute will have a substantial and dramatic impact upon (1) the arrangements of decedents' estates, and (2). the future role that the executor and the lawyer will have in the settlement …