Law Commons^™

Wilderness No More: Alaska As The New "Offshore" Trust Jurisdiction, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Alaska has made two sweeping reforms to its trust laws in an effort to position itself as the most sophisticated "offshore" trust jurisdiction for wealthy U.S. citizens and non-U.S. persons holding substantial U.S. property or stock. This article describes Alaska's departure from the venerated (if misinterpreted) rule against perpetuities and illustrates how the new Alaska law effectively allows taxpayers to make their own decision about the level at which a trust will be taxed. This article also details Alaska's approach to self-settled spendthrift trusts. In certain circumstances, an existing or future creditor will be prevented from satisfying a claim out …

26th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law, Turney P. Berry, Jerold I. Horn, David Ackerman, Sheldon G. Gilman, Cassie Spencer, Theodore B. Atlass, John T. Bondurant, Eric A. Manterfield, Norvie L. Lay, James W. Turner, Jeffrey M. Yussman, Homer Parrent Iii, David Tachau

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 26th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute held by UK/CLE in July 1999.

Ten Limitations To Ponder On Farm Limited Liability Companies, Jesse Richardson, L. Leon Geyer

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From Jeans To Genes: The Evolving Nature Of Property Of The Estate, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Posthumous Meddling: An Instrumental Theory Of Testamentary Restraints On Conjugal And Religious Choices, Jeffrey G. Sherman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1998-99), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

In its 1999 Session, the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia in its 1999 Session. In addition, there were eleven Supreme Court of Virginia opinions and one Bankruptcy Court opinion in the period covered by this review that involved issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

Marriage And The Income Tax Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow: A Primer And Legislative Scorecard, Ann F. Thomas

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Selected Estate Planning Strategies For Persons With Less Than $3 Million, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Individuals in the “modest” wealth category face special hurdles in estate planning. This article assumes that the “modest” wealth category includes individuals whose net worth exceeds the amount that may be protected by the unified credit (for 1999, the equivalent of $650,000 and herein referred to as the “estate tax exemption,” the “gift tax exemption” or the “applicable exemption amount”), but does not exceed approximately $3 million. In general, people of modest wealth cannot easily afford to give up significant amounts of wealth during lifetime to achieve estate planning goals, although the lifetime transfer of wealth is one of the …

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. …

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.

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. …

The Private Law Of Race And Sex: An Antebellum Perspective, Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

In this article, Professor Adrienne D. Davis traces the interaction of race, sex, and estate law in the antebellum and postbellum South. Through a close analysis of intestate succession and testamentary transfers involving the formerly enslaved, she unearths the role of private law in reconciling and preserving both property rights and racial hierarchy. The article centers on a series of historical case studies involving the rights of formerly enslaved women and their children to postmortem transfers of wealth. While the law of private property generally served to reinforce racial hierarchy, these cases involved the use of property rights -- specifically, …

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.

Enforcing Family Promises: Reliance, Reciprocity, And Relational Contract, Melanie B. Leslie

Articles

Courts are willing, in commercial contexts, to enforce promises even without consideration when enforcement supports a norm of reciprocity-a norm which recognizes that promises are seldom totally gratuitous, but are often made in furtherance of reciprocal, long-term, trust-based relationships. In this article, Professor Leslie argues that relational contract principles are firmly embedded in wills law. Courts enforce the reciprocity norm in the family context just as they do in commercial contexts; this enforcement is seen, however, not in breach of promise suits, which occur rarely between family members, but rather in will contests. Despite the prevalent ideology of wills law, …

The Public Trust Doctrine: A Tragedy Of The Common Law, James R. Rasband

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.