Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Using Empirical Studies As A Basis For Updating Intestacy Laws, Sergio Pareja

Sergio Pareja

The principal goal of any intestacy statute is to determine the probable intent of individuals who die without a will. Professor Wright and Ms. Sterner analyze 493 wills that were probated in Escambia and Alachua Counties, Florida, in 2013. This blog post reviews their study as well as Wright and Sterner's final analysis. Pareja adds, new statutes, if properly considered, should pay attention to gender, race, and class differences that surfaced in the authors’ study

Using Empirical Studies As A Basis For Updating Intestacy Laws, Sergio Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

The principal goal of any intestacy statute is to determine the probable intent of individuals who die without a will. Professor Wright and Ms. Sterner analyze 493 wills that were probated in Escambia and Alachua Counties, Florida, in 2013. This blog post reviews their study as well as Wright and Sterner's final analysis. Pareja adds, new statutes, if properly considered, should pay attention to gender, race, and class differences that surfaced in the authors’ study

Promoting Retirement Security For Low-Income Workers In Illinois: An Analysis And Lessons For Other States, Philip C. Aka, Chidera V. Oku, Murna Habila

Akron Law Review

This Article makes suggestions for promoting retirement security among low-income workers in Illinois with pointed lessons for workers in other U.S. states. Adapting a framework from a previous study by the principal author, the Article portrays retirement preparedness for low-income workers in Illinois as a function of changes in Social Security, employer-sponsored pensions, and personal assets—the famed “three-legged stool” of retirement income—synchronized with reduction of disparities between socioeconomic groups in education, healthcare, and housing. Many studies on retirement security focus excessively on the national level sometimes at the expense of the subnational phenomena that complicate retirement security ...

The Prince Estate: How Intestacy Works, How It Could Work, And How It Fails As An Estate Plan, Dennis M. Patrick, Beth T. Morrison

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Federal Law Of Property: The Case Of Inheritance Disclaimers And Tenancy By The Entireties, David Gray Carlson

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Income Tax Concerns With Purpose Trusts, Thomas E. Simmons

Thomas E. Simmons

No abstract provided.

United States V. Osage Wind, Llc, Summer Carmack

Public Land and Resources Law Review

The Osage Nation, as owner of the beneficial interest in its mineral estate, issues federally-approved leases to persons and entities who wish to conduct mineral development on its lands. After an energy-development company, Osage Wind, leased privately-owned surface lands within Tribal reservation boundaries and began to excavate minerals for purposes of constructing a wind farm, the United States brought suit on the Tribe’s behalf. In the ensuing litigation, the Osage Nation insisted that Osage Wind should have obtained a mineral lease from the Tribe before beginning its work. In its decision, the Tenth Circuit applied one of the Indian ...

Maximizing Ponzi Loss Deductions For Estate And Income Tax Purposes: Are Taxpayers Better Off Dead?, Valrie Chambers, Brian Elzweig

William & Mary Business Law Review

There is a long history of cases interpreting whether a theft loss deduction for securities fraud is allowable for personal income taxes. The cases require that for a theft loss to be actionable as such, it would have to meet the requirements of the common law definition of theft in the U.S. state in which it occurred. This generally requires direct privity between the person claiming the loss and the person who committed the theft. Because most securities transactions are brokered, the direct privity is lost and a theft loss deduction is denied in favor a capital loss. Recently ...

Introducing Virtual Representation, Thomas E. Simmons

Thomas E. Simmons

Letter To Orrin G. Hatch And Ron Wyden On Donor-Advised Funds, Ray D. Madoff, Roger Colinvaux

Law School Publications

Letter to Orrin G. Hatch, chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Finance and Ron Wyden, the ranking member of that committee. This letter was a response to a September 6 letter from the representatives of charitable foundations, which in turn responded to a July 17 letter from Madoff and Colinvaux. The subject of the letter is a set of proposed changes, proposed by Madoff and Colinvaux, to the tax code related to donor-advised funds.

Raising The Dead: An Examination Of In Re Kingsbury And Maine's Law Regarding Intestate Succession And Posthumous Paternity Testing, Dylan R. Boyd

Maine Law Review

In 2001, Ben Erskine, a man who claimed to be the son of renowned guru Paramahansa Yogananda, planned to ask a Los Angeles judge to order that the guru's body be exhumed for DNA testing to determine Erskine's paternity. Erskine's allegations threatened both Yogananda's reputation and the fortune of his estate, which belonged to his organization the Self Realization Fellowship. In 2002, seven years after the allegations arose, conclusive tests comparing Erskine's DNA and that of Yogananda's surviving male relatives in India resolved the controversy and vindicated the guru, thus putting to rest the ...

Non-Charitable Purpose Trusts: Past, Present, And Future, Richard C. Ausness

Richard C. Ausness

This Article focuses on non-charitable purpose trusts and how they enable estate planners to better carry out their clients’ objectives.

Please Don’T Make Me Pay Taxes: How New Irs Law Helps Art Collectors Avoid Hefty Taxes, Stephanie Dunn

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Letter To Orrin G. Hatch And Ron Wyden On Donor-Advised Funds, Douglas Kridler, Vikki Spruill, Dan Cardinali, Adam Meyerson

Law School Publications

Letter written on the behalf of a number of philanthropic and community foundations to Orrin G. Hatch, chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Finance and Ron Wyden, the ranking member of that committee. The letter was written in response to the July 17 letter by Ray Madoff and Roger Colinvaux, which advocated for changes in the tax code related to donor-advised funds. This letter argues against the changes suggested by Madoff and Colinvaux.

The Potential Impact Of Heir Property On Timber Management In The Southeastern United States, Becky Barlow, Conner Bailey

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Abstract

Active timberland management maintains forest health and productivity, which in turn contributes to the sustainability of the resource and wealth of the landowner. However, when land is held as heir property, options for timberland management are often limited. Heir property is owned as an undivided interest among many heirs of an original owner, or multiple generations of owners, who died intestate. This is common among African American landowners in the South. As a result the title is considered “clouded,” limiting access to capital and resources that are beneficial to timberland management. In this paper, the authors hope to improve ...

Fiduciary Governance, Paul B. Miller, Andrew S. Gold

Paul Miller

The fiduciary relationship is one of the most fundamental legal relationships, and its importance for both public and private law is increasingly recognized. Fiduciary mandates typically involve one person—the fiduciary—administering the affairs or property of other persons—an individual beneficiary or group of beneficiaries. Yet, as we will demonstrate, this is not the only way fiduciary relationships are structured. Most accounts of fiduciary law oversimplify the law because they exclude a categorically different form of fiduciary relationship. A significant set of fiduciary relationships feature governance mandates in which the fiduciary is charged with pursuing abstract purposes rather than ...

No Child Left Behind: Extending Ohio's Pretermitted Heir Statute To Revocable Trusts, Danielle J. Halachoff

Akron Law Review

Generally, pretermitted heir statutes protect a child, and under some statutes a more remote descendant of the testator from unintentional disinheritance. Their purpose is to carry out the presumed intent of the decedent to provide for a child inadvertently omitted from the will. Because revocable trusts are regularly used as substitutes for wills, primarily to avoid probate administration, presumptions regarding the intent of a decedent that are applicable to wills should also be applicable to revocable trusts. Additionally, many other problems that arise when disposing of a testator’s property at death may also arise with a settlor’s use ...

Arbitration In Wills And Trusts: From George Washington To An Uncertain Present, Edward F. Sherman

Arbitration Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Novel Tool For Teaching Property: Starting With The Questions, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

Fiduciary Obligations And Aboriginal Peoples, Kent Mcneil

Kent McNeil

No abstract provided.