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Full-Text Articles in Estates and Trusts

Assessing Assisted Reproductive Technology, Raymond C. O'Brien Jan 2018

Assessing Assisted Reproductive Technology, Raymond C. O'Brien

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Technological innovation possesses both opportunity and challenge. Because assisted reproductive technology (ART) involves sexual intimacy, parenthood, personhood, gender identity, privacy, legacy, and a plethora of religious, historical, sociological, and ethical underpinnings, the challenges presented in such technological innovation are substantial. Nonetheless, the opportunities are significant and progressive. Because of in vitro fertilization, gestational and genetic surrogacy, posthumous conception, and mitochondrial replacement therapy, humans now have the opportunity to overcome infertility, gender obstacles to parentage, dynastic limitations, and diseases that have long plagued mothers and infants. However, challenges include the exploitation of surrogates, unequal access to ART services, possibilities of cloning …


Selective Issues In Effective Medicaid Estate Recovery Statutes, Raymond C. O'Brien Feb 2016

Selective Issues In Effective Medicaid Estate Recovery Statutes, Raymond C. O'Brien

Catholic University Law Review

Medicaid is a joint federal-state partnership program that provides medical care to the elderly, blind, and disabled poor. Unlike Medicare, Medicaid will pay for long-term care, leading millions of persons in need of such care to “spend-down” income or assets to qualify as sufficiently needy or poor. However, the state can eventually seek recovery of expenditures made through estate recovery programs following the death of both spouses. As it currently stands, states have no choice but to become increasingly vigilant in pursuing private funds in order to pay for Medicaid expenditures. As a result, elderly citizens and their families will …


Whose Fault Is It Anyway?: Analyzing The Role “Fault” Plays In The Division Of Premarital Property If Marriage Does Not Ensue, Arielle L. Murphy Apr 2015

Whose Fault Is It Anyway?: Analyzing The Role “Fault” Plays In The Division Of Premarital Property If Marriage Does Not Ensue, Arielle L. Murphy

Catholic University Law Review

Whenever an engagement comes to a premature end, the first question that seems to be asked is: “who gets the engagement ring?” This Comment seeks to answer this question. As societal views regarding marriage and a woman’s role within it began to change in the mid-twentieth century, courts started to recognize engagement rings as conditional gifts that were conditioned upon the marriage actually occurring. Even with this framework, states remain divided on whether fault should be included as part of the analysis in determining which party is entitled to the ring if an engagement ends before marriage occurs. This Comment …


Sherlock Holmes And The Problem Of The Dead Hand: The Modification And Termination Of "Irrevocable" Trusts, Richard C. Ausness Jan 2015

Sherlock Holmes And The Problem Of The Dead Hand: The Modification And Termination Of "Irrevocable" Trusts, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article is about the modification and termination of so-called “irrevocable” trusts. A trust may be made irrevocable at the time of its creation or it may become so at a later time. A testamentary trust is one that is embodied in a will and becomes effective at the testator’s death. Since the testator will be dead by the time the trust becomes effective, he will not be in a position to modify or revoke it. For the same reason, a revocable trust will become irrevocable when the settlor dies or when the power to revoke is released. Finally, an …


Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. William Gray Jr., Katherine E. Ramsey Nov 2011

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. William Gray Jr., Katherine E. Ramsey

University of Richmond Law Review

The 2011 session of the Virginia General Assembly enacted wills, trusts, and estates legislation that: (i) eliminated a potential federal transfer tax trap in inter vivos marital trusts, (ii) interpreted transfer tax formula clauses in light of recent changes in federal law, and (iii) adopted the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act. Three other legislative enactments and seven opinions of the Supreme Court of Virginia during the twelve months ending June 1, 2011, addressed issues affecting this field. In addition to addressing those developments, this article summarizes a recent federal district court opinion that dealt with a significant …


Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena Seplowitz Jul 2011

Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena Seplowitz

Rena C. Seplowitz

No abstract provided.


Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena Seplowitz Apr 2011

Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena Seplowitz

Sidney Kwestel

No abstract provided.


Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson Nov 2010

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

The 2010 Session of the General Assembly enacted wills, trusts, and estates legislation (i) adopting the Uniform Power ofAttorney Act, (ii) passing emergency legislation for the construction of tax-oriented wills and trusts of persons who die during 2010 with documents drafted prior thereto, (iii) revising the small-estate statutes, and (iv) clarifying the burial power of attorney. In addition, there were six other enactments, and seven opinions from the Supreme Court of Virginia during the one-year period ending June 1, 2010 that present issues of interest in thisarea. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments, along with …


Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson Nov 2006

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

The General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added or amended a number of sections ofthe Virginia Code in its 2006 Session. In addition, there were sixopinions from the Supreme Court of Virginia during the periodcovered by this review that presented 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.


Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena C. Seplowitz Jan 1988

Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena C. Seplowitz

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.


Inter Vivos Trusts-Potential Beneficiary's Right To Compel Trustee To Render A Formal Accounting And Disclose Information, Michigan Law Review Mar 1967

Inter Vivos Trusts-Potential Beneficiary's Right To Compel Trustee To Render A Formal Accounting And Disclose Information, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In recent years the inter vivos or living trust has become a popular method of disposing of property and in the future its use is likely to be even more widespread. Consequently, it has become increasingly important that the law governing such dispositions be both unequivocal and just. Unfortunately, in at least one situation this is not the case: When a person, believing himself to be a potential beneficiary of an inter vivos trust, seeks to compel the trustee to render a formal accounting or disclose information concerning the extent of his interest, he will find the law ambiguous and …


Loopholes And Ambiguities Of Section 2036, James C. Ervin Jr. Jan 1967

Loopholes And Ambiguities Of Section 2036, James C. Ervin Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The possibility of divergent tax treatment of economically similar situations has made section 2036 of the Internal Revenue Code' one of the most abused of the federal estate tax provisions. Originally enacted to ensure inclusion within the gross estate of the value of all property ostensibly transferred by the decedent prior to his death and yet beneficially enjoyed by him during his lifetime, the section is being circumvented by an increasing number of tax avoidance patterns. Although some of the confusion can be traced to the erratic approach of the courts to cases involving section 2036, the primary interpretive difficulty …


The Joint And Survivor Account In Michigan-Progress Through Confusion, Richard V. Wellman Feb 1965

The Joint And Survivor Account In Michigan-Progress Through Confusion, Richard V. Wellman

Michigan Law Review

Legal writers have been intrigued for years by the challenge of classifying and identifying the resulting incidents of the joint and survivor bank deposit when an attempt is made to use it as a mode of effectuating a donor depositor's intention to confer benefits on a donee co-depositor. Much in their discussions is useful to one who is concerned with the concept that has evolved in Michigan, where a 1909 statute states that some co-depositors are presumed to be joint tenants. Michigan judges and practitioners must determine, however, whether comment about national trends is applicable here, for in many respects …


Property-Joint Bank Accounts-The Donee's Inter Vivos Interest, David K. Kroll S.Ed. May 1962

Property-Joint Bank Accounts-The Donee's Inter Vivos Interest, David K. Kroll S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The use of joint bank accounts has become widespread throughout the United States in recent years and has been the source of considerable litigation and comment. The predominant importance of this type of account is that it allows funds remaining at the death of a co-depositor to pass to the survivor without the necessity of a will. This aspect of the account, causing it to be known sometimes as a "Poor Man's Will," has been the focal point of the attention given to the transaction; and today, after more than half a century of uneven treatment by the courts, all …


Fraud On The Widow’S Share, W. D. Macdonald Jan 1960

Fraud On The Widow’S Share, W. D. Macdonald

Michigan Legal Studies Series

This study seeks the answer to a troublesome question: What should be done about gratuitous inter vivos transfers in alleged "evasion" of the widow's statutory share? My thesis is that the statutory share should be replaced by the type of decedent's family maintenance legislation found in the British Commonwealth, and that this legislation should be buttressed with anti-evasion provisions. Inter vivos "evasions" seem to be a permanent and increasingly serious concomitant of our forced share system. Part I, dealing with matters of policy, explores the chief aggravating factors. These factors include the high rate of remarriage, which induces transfers to …


Transfers Of Joint Property In Contemplation Of Death: A Call For Immediate Statutory Revision, L. Hart Wright Nov 1956

Transfers Of Joint Property In Contemplation Of Death: A Call For Immediate Statutory Revision, L. Hart Wright

Michigan Law Review

For years the Tax Court sided with the government and the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in asserting that the contemplation-of-death provision of the estate tax act was sufficiently elastic to include the tax concept of ownership reflected in the joint-property provision of the same act. The alliance between those tribunals on this point was recently broken, however, when the Tax Court shifted to the competing view supported by taxpayers and the appellate court for the Ninth Circuit. It now believes that the two provisions mentioned above are complete strangers even though at one time these two were …


Future Interests-Powers-Legal Consequences Of A Life Estate With A Power Of Disposition Under The New York Type Powers Statute, Richard W. Young S.Ed. Apr 1956

Future Interests-Powers-Legal Consequences Of A Life Estate With A Power Of Disposition Under The New York Type Powers Statute, Richard W. Young S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Testatrix devised certain property to her husband "to be used and enjoyed by him with the right to sell and dispose of same and use so much thereof, either principal or income, as he may desire during his lifetime.'' Any property or the proceeds thereof remaining at his death was to be distributed equally to named takers, children of the testatrix. Successors of the remaindermen brought an action for ejectment and to quiet title against persons claiming under conveyances from the life tenant, the plaintiffs contending that these conveyances were made without consideration and could not operate to cut off …


Trusts - Inter Vivos Trust As A Substitute For A Will - Effect Of Settlor's Retention Of Control, H. Marshall Peter Aug 1942

Trusts - Inter Vivos Trust As A Substitute For A Will - Effect Of Settlor's Retention Of Control, H. Marshall Peter

Michigan Law Review

A executed an instrument without the formalities of a will, transferring securities to B. It was provided therein that B should hold, manage, sell, and invest according to A's written directions, and should retransfer to A if A so directed. A further reserved the right to alter the "ultimate beneficiary" and also to terminate the trust on notice to B, in which event B should retransfer to him securities and investments as well as net income otherwise payable to A at fixed intervals during A's life. On A's death, the trust was to become absolute …