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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Probate Definition Of Family: A Proposal For Guided Discretion In Intestacy, Susan N. Gary
The Probate Definition Of Family: A Proposal For Guided Discretion In Intestacy, Susan N. Gary
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Intestacy statutes may not match the wishes of many people who die intestate. Changes to the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) include or exclude potential takers, as the drafters attempt to bring the UPC provisions closer to the intent of more intestate decedents. As the UPC tries to fine-tune the intestacy statutes, however, family circumstances continue to get more and more complicated. Families headed by unmarried couples, blended families with children from multiple marriages, and families in which adults raise children who are not legally theirs, have become commonplace. For some decedents, non-family friends and caregivers may be more important than …
Toward Equality: Nonmarital Children And The Uniform Probate Code, Paula A. Monopoli
Toward Equality: Nonmarital Children And The Uniform Probate Code, Paula A. Monopoli
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article traces the evolution of the Uniform Probate Code's (UPC) broad equality framework for inheritance by nonmarital children in the context of the wider movement for legal equality for such children in society. It concludes that the UPC is to be lauded for its efforts to provide equal treatment to all nonmarital children. The UPC's commitment to such equality serves an expressive function for state legislatures and courts to follow its lead. The UPC has fulfilled its promise that all children regardless of marital status shall be equal for purposes of inheritance from or through parents, with one exception: …
What Causes Fundamental Legal Ideas? Marital Property In England And France In The Thirteenth Century, Charles Donahue Jr.
What Causes Fundamental Legal Ideas? Marital Property In England And France In The Thirteenth Century, Charles Donahue Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Categorizing broadly, the marital property systems of the Western nations today are divided into two types: those in which husband and wife own all property separately except those items that they have expressly agreed to hold jointly (in a nontechnical sense) and those in which husband and wife own a substantial portion or even all of their property jointly unless they have expressly agreed to hold it separately. The system of separate property is the "common law" system, in force in most jurisdictions where the Anglo-American common law is in force. The system of joint property is the community property …
Joint Tenancy: The Estate Lawyer's Continuing Burden, John E. Riecker
Joint Tenancy: The Estate Lawyer's Continuing Burden, John E. Riecker
Michigan Law Review
The discussion which follows will be divided into three major parts. First, it will be important to see why so much real and personal property remains in joint tenancy between husband and wife or in entireties tenancy. It has been almost eighteen years since Congress eliminated the necessity of holding property in this form in order to split income therefrom for income tax purposes. Is inertia the only reason for the popularity of joint ownership, or are there other reasons? Second, we shall review the familiar but false assumptions most laymen (and even a few attorneys) commonly make regarding the …
Marital Deduction Formula Clauses In Estate Planning-Estate And Income Tax Considerations, Alan N. Polasky
Marital Deduction Formula Clauses In Estate Planning-Estate And Income Tax Considerations, Alan N. Polasky
Michigan Law Review
Once upon a time, and not so very long ago, a child was born, much to the delight of its lawyer-parents. As children will, it brought much joy and only occasional moments of dismay and concern during its early, formative years. But one day it entered the terrible teens, and at age sixteen it became, like many teen-agers, baffling, confusing, and frustrating, giving rise to frenzied attempts to cope with and control the complexities of its behavior. Its name? The Federal Estate Tax Marital Deduction.
Trusts-Descent And Distribution-Wife's Forced Share And An Inter Vivos Trust, Fredric L. Smith
Trusts-Descent And Distribution-Wife's Forced Share And An Inter Vivos Trust, Fredric L. Smith
Michigan Law Review
Settlor had created an inter vivas trust, retaining income for life, right to revoke, and control over the investment. Upon settlor's death, plaintiff, settlor's wife, was to receive income for life, with gift over to settlor's children. Plaintiff elected to take against settlor's will in favor of a statutorily provided distributive share. Upon application for declaratory judgment the trial court declared the trust to be valid, but granted relief to plaintiff as to her distributive share out of the trust assets, and the court of appeals affirmed. On motion to certify, held, reversed. Since the trust is valid, title …
Wills - Religious Conditions In Restraint Of Marriage - Validity At Common Law And Effect Of Shelley V. Kraemer, Jack G. Armstrong S.Ed.
Wills - Religious Conditions In Restraint Of Marriage - Validity At Common Law And Effect Of Shelley V. Kraemer, Jack G. Armstrong S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Testator devised and bequeathed his property to his children, but with a proviso that the gift to any child who should marry a person not born in the Hebrew faith should lapse. Subsequent to the testator's death, the defendant married a woman who had been born a Roman Catholic. The other beneficiaries brought a proceeding to declare that the defendant had lost his rights under the will by reason of his marriage. The probate court granted a decree substantially as sought by the plaintiffs. On appeal, held, affirmed. This partial restraint on marriage is not so unreasonable as to …
Future Interests-Rule Against Perpetuities-Contingent Remainders In The Alternative-Rule Of Loddington V. Kime-Power Of Appointment, Shubrick T. Kothe S.Ed.
Future Interests-Rule Against Perpetuities-Contingent Remainders In The Alternative-Rule Of Loddington V. Kime-Power Of Appointment, Shubrick T. Kothe S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Prior to her marriage, settlor created a trust, reserving to herself a life estate, with general testamentary power of appointment over the corpus. The trust deed provided further that in default of appointment, "or as to any part of said estate as to which the appointment may for any reason fail to take effect," the property was to remain in trust to pay one-half the income to her fiancé for life, if he should survive her, the other half to her children who survived or the issue of deceased children, and to pay over the principal when the youngest taker …
Revocation Of Wills By Subsequent Change In The Condition Or Circumstances Of The Testator, Elizabeth Durfee
Revocation Of Wills By Subsequent Change In The Condition Or Circumstances Of The Testator, Elizabeth Durfee
Michigan Law Review
Among the oldest rules in the law of wills are those by which a will is held to be revoked by implication by certain changes in the circumstances of the testator. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these rules. Special reference will be made to statutes, both those which deal generally with the subject and those which provide specifically for the effect of particular events, such as marriage; no attempt will be made, however to analyze the latter type of statute exhaustively. By way of introduction, a brief historical survey of the doctrine should be made.
Wills - Construction - Limitation Of Defeasance Clause, Herbert R. Whiting
Wills - Construction - Limitation Of Defeasance Clause, Herbert R. Whiting
Michigan Law Review
Testatrix died leaving as her only heirs at law and next of kin a son, Thomas, and a grandaughter, Malinda, to whom she devised her estate in approximately equal shares. At the time she executed her will Thomas was twenty-two years of age and unmarried and Malinda was eleven. The principal case turns on the construction of a clause in her will, devising a parcel of land to Malinda, which reads as follows: "I give and bequeath ... the same to the said Malinda McK. Young and her children but if the said Malinda McK. Young shall die before she …
Taxation - Federal Estate Tax - Claims Arising Out Of An Antenuptial Agreement As Deductions From Gross Estate, Charles E. Nadeau
Taxation - Federal Estate Tax - Claims Arising Out Of An Antenuptial Agreement As Deductions From Gross Estate, Charles E. Nadeau
Michigan Law Review
An antenuptial agreement provided that in the event the wife survived her husband she would receive $50,000 in lieu of her dower rights. After his death the executors paid this sum, and then sought to deduct it from the gross estate as a claim against the estate. In affirming the Board of Tax Appeals the court held that marriage and relinquishment of dower were not "an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth" and hence the claims were not deductible under the Revenue Act of 1926. Empire Trust Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, (C. C. A. …