Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
How Gender And Other Identity Factors Influence Attitudes Toward Will Making: Lessons From Australia, Bridget J. Crawford, Tina Cockburn, Kelly Purser, Ho Fai Chan, Stephen Whyte, Uwe Dulleck
How Gender And Other Identity Factors Influence Attitudes Toward Will Making: Lessons From Australia, Bridget J. Crawford, Tina Cockburn, Kelly Purser, Ho Fai Chan, Stephen Whyte, Uwe Dulleck
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This essay aims to stimulate interest in further empirical study of attitudes toward will making by reporting the results of a 2022 survey conducted in Australia of the general population (n=1202) and legal professionals (n=112). We asked participants for their views about the ideal age at which to begin the will-making process and the relative contributions of the client and attorney to any resulting will. There was a discernible gender-based difference in views on both questions. Women preferred to initiate those conversations approximately six years earlier than men did and, especially at earlier life stages, preferred less professional input into …
Wills Formalities In Post-Pandemic World: A Research Agenda, Bridget J. Crawford, Kelly Purser, Tina Cockburn
Wills Formalities In Post-Pandemic World: A Research Agenda, Bridget J. Crawford, Kelly Purser, Tina Cockburn
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought new focus to human mortality. The virus has reminded many people that they need to have a valid will or otherwise make plans for the effective transmission of their property on death. Yet stay-at-home orders and social distancing recommendations make it difficult or impossible to comply with the traditional rules for validly executing wills. Across most common law jurisdictions, the traditional requirements call for two witnesses in the physical presence of the testator. Because of the practical difficulties of safely executing documents during the pandemic with witnesses assembled in physical proximity, many jurisdictions internationally …
Blockchain Wills, Bridget J. Crawford
Blockchain Wills, Bridget J. Crawford
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Blockchain technology has the potential to radically alter the way that people have executed wills for centuries. This Article makes two principal claims--one descriptive and the other normative. Descriptively, this Article suggests that traditional wills formalities have been relaxed to the point that they no longer serve the cautionary, protective, evidentiary, and channeling functions that scholars have used to justify strict compliance with wills formalities. Widespread use of digital technology in everyday communications has led to several notable cases in which individuals have attempted to execute wills electronically. These wills have had a mixed reception. Four states currently recognize electronic …
Wills Formalities In The Twenty-First Century, Bridget J. Crawford
Wills Formalities In The Twenty-First Century, Bridget J. Crawford
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Individuals have executed wills the same way for centuries. But over time, traditional requirements have relaxed. This Article makes two principal claims, both of which disrupt fundamental assumptions about the purposes and functions of wills formalities. First, the traditional requirements that a will must be in writing and signed by the testator in the presence of (or acknowledged before) witnesses have never adequately served their stated purposes. For that reason, strict compliance with formalities cannot be justified by their cautionary, protective, evidentiary, and channeling functions. Reducing or eliminating most of the long-standing requirements for execution of a will is consistent …
A Critical Research Agenda For Wills, Trusts And Estates, Bridget J. Crawford
A Critical Research Agenda For Wills, Trusts And Estates, Bridget J. Crawford
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The law of wills, trusts, and estates could benefit from consideration of its development and impact on people of color; women of all colors; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; low-income and poor individuals; the disabled; and nontraditional families. One can measure the law's commitment to justice and equality by understanding the impact on these historically disempowered groups of the laws of intestacy, spousal rights, child protection, will formalities, will contests, and will construction; the creation, operation and construction of trusts; fiduciary administration; creditors' rights; asset protection; nonprobate transfers; planning for incapacity and death; and wealth transfer taxation. This Article …
There's A Will, But No Way--Whatever Happened To The Doctrine Of Testamentary Freedom And What Can (Should) We Do To Restore It?, Irene D. Johnson
There's A Will, But No Way--Whatever Happened To The Doctrine Of Testamentary Freedom And What Can (Should) We Do To Restore It?, Irene D. Johnson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
It is the purpose of this article to examine the current problems surrounding the issue of freedom of testation, to enumerate and evaluate various suggestions that have been proposed for the elimination of these problems, and to propose this writer's suggestion for the restoration of freedom of testation to those who wish to propound non-traditional estate plans. Part I examines, in some detail, the ways in which courts and juries have stymied the exercise of freedom of testation. Part II is devoted to the different suggestions that commentators have put forth for the protection of the non-traditional estate plan. Part …
Surviving Spouse's Distributive Share Of Amendable Trusts, John A. Humbach
Surviving Spouse's Distributive Share Of Amendable Trusts, John A. Humbach
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Purcell v. Cleveland Trust Co., 200 N.E.2d 602, 28 Ohio Op. 2d 262 (P. Ct. 1964). Approximately three years before her death in 1960, plaintiff's wife created an amendable and revocable inter vivos trust, naming defendant as trustee. The formally drawn instrument provided for pour-over from her simultaneously executed will, however, a specific bequest to the trust was apparently never made. After his wife's death, plaintiff, choosing to exercise his statutory prerogative of taking against his wife's will: demanded that defendant trustee pay over to h i from the corpus of the inter vivos trust the one-half share which he …