Estates and Trusts Commons^™

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 ...

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.

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. Specifically, it explores the history of non-charitable purpose trusts and summarizes the differences between private trusts, charitable trusts, and non-charitable purpose trusts. This Article also examines the treatment of non-charitable purpose trusts in England and the United States prior to the promulgation of the Restatement of Trusts in 1935. This Article surveys the recent adoption of non-charitable purpose trust provisions in the Uniform Trust Code and various Restatements and gives advice on drafting the trust instruments. Lastly, this Article concludes ...

In Re Davis Family Heritage Trust, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 26 (May 25, 2017)., Ping Chang

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

No abstract provided.

Klabacka V. Nelson, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 24 (May 25, 2017), Christopher Kelly

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that (1) family courts have subject matter jurisdiction in divorce proceedings that involve issues otherwise outside the scope of family courts, (2) parol evidence may not be considered to determine party intent to form separate property agreements and self-settled spendthrift trusts where the written agreements are valid and unambiguous, (3) a court order equalizing assets between different spendthrift trusts is improper because the NRS protects against court orders that move assets from trusts and against moves that do not benefit trust beneficiaries, (4) spendthrift trusts may not be reached for payment of personal obligations not known at ...

In Re Connell Living Trust, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 19 (May. 04, 2017), Marco Luna

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the district court that found Appellant had breached her fiduciary duty when she withheld assets from entering a trust created for her children, the Respondents. The Court found that the mother had insufficient evidence to raise a genuine issue of material fact that she owned 100% of a trust created by her parents when her children were slated to receive 65% of said trust from their grandparents. The Court affirmed the lower court, ordered the assets be moved to the children's trust, and awarded them attorney's fees.

Asymmetries In The Generation And Transmission Of Wealth, Felix B. Chang

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Article assigns a redistributive role to the legal rules of trusts and estates. Unlike business law, trusts and estates has lagged in articulating a comprehensive theory on inequality. Consequently, income inequality is compounded intergenerationally as wealth inequality, with dire consequences for economic productivity and social stability. To move the discourse on wealth inequality, this Article explores the divergent approaches toward inequality in business law and trusts and estates.

Additionally, this Article recasts trusts and estates’ legal rules as wealth transfer mechanisms. Four categories of rules are implicated: (1) rules that interact with the tax system, (2) rules that govern ...

Expanding The Slayer Rule In Florida: Why Elder Abuse Should Trigger Disinheritance, Natasa Glisic

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Method In Fiduciary Law's Mixed Messages, Evan J. Criddle

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Tomorrow's Inheritance: The Frontiers Of Estate Planning Formalism, David Horton

Boston College Law Review

The rules that govern the creation of an estate plan are in flux. Courts once demanded strict adherence to the Wills Act. Yet, this legacy of hyper-vigilance is waning, as the Uniform Probate Code, the Restatement (Third) of Property, and ten states have adopted the harmless error rule. Meanwhile, trusts, which need not comply with the Wills Act, have eclipsed wills as the dominant method of posthumous wealth transmission. This Article explores three budding topics that threaten to further complicate this area. First, there are anecdotal accounts of decedents trying to make electronic wills. In both strict compliance and harmless ...

Liberty In Loyalty: A Republican Theory Of Fiduciary Law, Evan J. Criddle

Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom holds that the fiduciary duty of loyalty is a prophylactic rule that serves to deter and redress harmful opportunism. This idea can be traced back to the dawn of modern fiduciary law in England and the United States, and it has inspired generations of legal scholars to attempt to explain and justify the duty of loyalty from an economic perspective. Nonetheless, this Article argues that the conventional account of fiduciary loyalty should be abandoned because it does not adequately explain or justify fiduciary law’s core features.

The normative foundations of fiduciary loyalty come into sharper focus when ...

Freedom Of Inheritance, Mark Glover

Utah Law Review

The law grants individuals the broad freedom of disposition to decide how their property should be distributed upon death. The rationale underlying freedom of disposition is that the choices of individual donors produce results that maximize social welfare. Policymakers are rightfully skeptical that they can craft a mandatory estate plan that fits all situations or that probate courts can consistently and accurately assess the merits of particular dispositions of property. By contrast, the donor is in the best position to evaluate her own specific circumstances and to place property in the hands of the donees who will benefit the most ...

How Many #Followers Do You Have?: Evaluating The Rise Of Social Media And Issues Concerning In Re Ctli’S Determination That Social Media Accounts Are Property Of The Estate, Patricia A. Leeson

Catholic University Law Review

With the rise of social media use, legal disputes have surfaced with litigants looking to the courts to determine issues of ownership and legal authority. As a matter of first impression, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas held that a Twitter and Facebook social media account were to be regarded as property of the estate pursuant to Section 541 of the Bankruptcy Code. The court analogized the social media accounts to subscriber lists because they provide valuable access to customers. Although the court addressed the question of whether social media applications are to be regarded as property in bankruptcy ...

Video: Elder Law For Beginners, Arlene Lakin, Gail Fisher

Law Center Plus Seminar Series

This particular seminar is designed to educate attorneys about how to be an elder law attorney. Practitioners will learn the various skill sets involved: estate and incapacity planning as well as protection of assets in order to qualify for, or remain qualified for, public benefits such as Medicaid and veteran’s pension with aid and attendance.

1. How to work with senior citizens and their families in a clinical as well as legal format
2. How to determine capacity of elderly clients to execute legal documents
3. How to analyze family relationships
4. How to design an estate and incapacity ...

In Re Frei Irrevocable Trust, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 8 (Mar. 2, 2017), Angela Lee

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Nevada Supreme Court adopted the Restatement (Second) of Trusts SS 338 (Am. Law Inst. 1959). It held trusts are modifiable by a settlor and beneficiary as long as any non-consenting beneficiaries' interests are not prejudiced.

Liberty And Community In Marriage: Expanding On Massey’S Proposal For A Community Property Option In New Hampshire, Jo Carrillo

University of New Hampshire Law Review

This article argues that intimate partners should have the right to adopt a sharing economy within marriage. Forty-one U.S. states employ a separate property regime for property acquired during marriage; of these, only two allow married couples to opt out of the separate property system and hold their assets as community property. Nine U.S. states are community property states. To encourage equal partnership in marriage, Calvin Massey proposed that New Hampshire, a separate property state, enable a community property option. This essay expands on Massey’s proposal by comparing it to three other marriage reform proposals: two based ...

The Disposition Of Human Remains And Organ Donation: Increasing Testamentary Freedom While Upholding The No Property Rule, Louise M. Mimnagh

Western Journal of Legal Studies

In terms of real and personal property, Canadian law grants individuals substantial testamentary freedom in the disposition of their estate. However, in regards to human remains, Ontario has upheld the common law’s longstanding “No Property Rule,” which prevents testamentary freedom in regards to one’s bodily remains. In light of changing societal notions of property and value with respect to the human body, this article argues in favour of implementing greater testamentary freedom for individuals in regards to the disposition of their body, organs, tissue, and fluids. This article reviews alternative approaches to the testamentary disposition of human remains ...

Estate Of Purdue: A Blueprint For Flping, Phyllis C. Taite

Journal Publications

In this article, Taite examines Estate of Purdue, in which the Tax Court held that assets of the decedent that were transferred to the family limited liability company were not includable in the gross estate, that transfers to the family trust qualified for an annual exclusion, and that the estate could deduct interest on loans from the estate’s beneficiaries.

Estate Of Holliday: "Flping" The Script, Phyllis C. Taite

Journal Publications

In this article, Taite examines Estate of Holliday, in which the Tax Court held that the full value of property transferred to a family limited partnership was properly includable in the decedent’s estate because the decedent had a retained right in the property and no significant nontax reasons for making the transfer.