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Full-Text Articles in Estates and Trusts
The Rise Of The Perpetual Trust, Jesse Dukeminier, James E. Krier
The Rise Of The Perpetual Trust, Jesse Dukeminier, James E. Krier
Articles
For more than two centuries, the Rule against Perpetuities has served as the chief means of limiting a transferor's power to tie up property by way of successive contingent interests. But recently, at least seventeen jurisdictions in the United States have enacted statutes abolishing the Rule in the case of perpetual (or near-perpetual) trusts. The prime mover behind this important development has been the federal Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax. This Article traces the gradual decline of the common law Rule against Perpetuities, considers the dynamics behind the recent wave of state legislation, examines the problems that might result from the rise …
The Estate Tax Marital Deduction, Harold Dubroff, Douglas A. Kahn
The Estate Tax Marital Deduction, Harold Dubroff, Douglas A. Kahn
Articles
The estate tax marital deduction, section 2056 of the Internal Revenue Code, was enacted in 1948, along with the split-income provisions of the income tax law and the marital deduction and split-gift provisions of the gift tax law. The purpose was to give married residents of common law states approximately the same federal tax advantages that were available to married residents of community property states. Ordinarily, upon the death of a married resident of a community property state, only one-half of the community property is taxed in the decedent's estate. Section 2056 achieves approximately the same result for married residents …
Transactions Subject To Gift Tax, Douglas A. Kahn, Earl M. Colson
Transactions Subject To Gift Tax, Douglas A. Kahn, Earl M. Colson
Articles
The gift tax is imposed on the "transfer of property by gift." The term gift is not expressly defined either in the Code or in the Treasury Regulations. However, section 2512(b), dealing with the valuation of gifts, states that "where property is transferred for less than an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth," the difference between the value of the property transferred and the consideration received constitutes a gift. Thus, for gift tax purposes, the determination of whether a gift was made does not turn so much on the intent of the transferor as it does on …
Executors And Administrators-Sale Of Realty In The Estate-Better Price As Reason For Permitting Sale Under "Best Interests Of The Estate" Provision, William J. Bogaard
Executors And Administrators-Sale Of Realty In The Estate-Better Price As Reason For Permitting Sale Under "Best Interests Of The Estate" Provision, William J. Bogaard
Michigan Law Review
Pursuant to a Missouri statute permitting sale of real property for any purpose in the best interests of the estate, administrator filed a petition for power to sell realty in the estate of the decedent for the reason, inter alia, that a better price could be obtained at a private sale than at a judicial sale resulting from a suit for partition. The plaintiff heir's subsequent bill for partition of the real estate was dismissed by the trial court, which found that the administrator's petition for power to sell had conferred jurisdiction of the property on the probate court. …
Descent And Distribution - Joint Ownership - Imposition Of Constructive Trust On Murderer Of Co-Tenant, John B. Schwemm S.Ed.
Descent And Distribution - Joint Ownership - Imposition Of Constructive Trust On Murderer Of Co-Tenant, John B. Schwemm S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
A husband, owning land with his wife as tenants by the entireties, killed her and immediately thereafter committed suicide. In an action to determine ownership of the realty, both the probate and appellate courts declared that since a relevant disinheritance statute was inapplicable, full title vested in the husband and, upon his death, descended to his heirs. On appeal, held, reversed. Despite the common law nature of such tenancies, equity will impose on the husband a constructive trust in one-half the property for the benefit of the victim's estate. National City Bank of Evansville v. Bledsoe, (Ind. 1957) …
Dispositions Of Property To Unincorporated Non-Profit Associations, Harold A.J. Ford
Dispositions Of Property To Unincorporated Non-Profit Associations, Harold A.J. Ford
Michigan Law Review
It now becomes necessary to examine the cases in which the disposition could not be treated as one to the existing members. This treatment will disclose that some courts have been prepared to regard some dispositions to associations as being for the purposes of the association. The only way in which property may be devoted to a purpose without conferring beneficial interests on particular individuals is by a trust. Accordingly in many instances the disposition takes effect as a trust.
Is The Rule Against Perpetuities Doomed?, Lewis M. Simes
Is The Rule Against Perpetuities Doomed?, Lewis M. Simes
Michigan Law Review
Few rules of the common law have shown such amazing vitality as the rule against perpetuities. Emerging in the Duke of Norfolk's Case in 1682, as a rule to restrict unbarrable entails in land, it is now applied, not only to interests in land, legal and equitable, but also to personal estate, tangible and intangible, including beneficial interests in trusts. It is regarded as a part of the common law of nearly every English speaking country, except a few of the United States where statutory substitutes have been provided. Since 1930, statutory substitutes have been abolished and there has been …
Retroactive Legislation Affecting Interests In Land, John Scurlock
Retroactive Legislation Affecting Interests In Land, John Scurlock
Michigan Legal Studies Series
Professor Scurlock's monograph covers an area of the law which is commonly by-passed in treatises and in classroom instruction. If we could merely tear Maitland's "seamless web" of the law and retain all the shreds, no part of the legal system would escape us. What we actually do, however, is to set up, in a more or less arbitrary fashion, numerous centers of legal classification, such as contracts, torts, property and constitutional law, to which closely related legal materials are attracted as to a magnet. But those legal materials which stand midway between two centers of attraction are likely to …
Perpetuity Statutes, Edwin C. Goddard
Perpetuity Statutes, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
THE common law of perpetuities is one of the most interesting examples of almost pure judicial legislation. De Donis, The Statutes of Uses and of Wills, but gave wider scope to the development by the courts of rules of law to thwart the attempt of the great landowners to tie up their landed estates in their families in perpetuity. One body of rules to this end limited restraints upon alienation, another the creation of future interests vesting at too remote a period. Restriction of restraints upon alienation, and the rule against perpetuities, these two were developed for the same end, …
Escheat - How State Acquires Title, Edwin C. Goddard
Escheat - How State Acquires Title, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
Escheat is of feudal origin, and properly applied only to land which on failure of heirs or for certain other reasons, "fell in" to the lord under whom it had been held. Personal property without an owner, as bona vacantia, became the property of the crown. In re Bond [1901] 1 Ch. 15. In the United States escheat is used more broadly, but usually arises when the owner of property dies intestate without heirs. Our alienage laws have generally removed disabilities of aliens to take, but in some jurisdictions there may still be escheat because of alienage, see 5 MICH. …
The Writing Required To Establish An Express Trust Of Land, Edgar N. Durfee
The Writing Required To Establish An Express Trust Of Land, Edgar N. Durfee
Articles
It has frequently been said that the Seventh Section of the Statute of Frauds, concerning Trusts of land, requires a writing containing "all the terms of the trust." Forster v. Hale, 3 Ves. 707; Smith v. Matthews, 3 DeG., F. & J. 139; Loring v. Palmer, 118 U. S. 321; Gaylord v. Lafayette, 115 Ind. 423; McClellan v. McClellan, 65 Me. 500; Blodgett v. Hildreth, 103 Mass. 484; York v. Perrine, 71 Mich. 567; Newkirk v. Place, 47 N. J. Eq. 477; Steere v. Steere, 5 Johns. Ch. 1; Cook v. Barr, 44 N. Y. 156; Dillaye v. Greenough, 45 …
The Disposition To Be Made Of Property The Subject Of A Power If The Power Is Not Exercised, John R. Rood
The Disposition To Be Made Of Property The Subject Of A Power If The Power Is Not Exercised, John R. Rood
Articles
The object sought in this article is to collect and classify the cases in which the courts have passed on the question as to what shall be done with property over which a power of appointment has been given; when it finally turns out for some reason that the power has not been exercised. It is not the object to establish any particular thesis, but rather to ascertain how the adjudicated cases stand.