Law Commons^™

Protecting Freedom Of Testation: A Proposal For Law Reform, Eike G. Hosemann

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article addresses a problem ever more pressing in wealthy and aging societies like the United States: interference with freedom of testation by the use of wrongful means such as undue influence or will forgery to acquire benefits through inheritance. A detailed analysis of the remedies against interference with freedom of testation under inheritance law, tort law, and equity reveals that there is currently a significant under-deterrence of this undesirable behavior. Hence, this Article proposes a new remedy in order to protect freedom of testation more effectively: a disinheritance statute barring wrongdoers that have infringed upon someone’s freedom of testation …

Incomplete Wills, Adam J. Hirsch

Michigan Law Review

This Article explores the problems that arise when a will fails to dispose of an individual's entire estate, so that she dies partially testate and partially intestate. The questions then raised include (1) whether provisions contained in the will purporting to redefine the individual's intestate heirs should supersede the statutory designations of those heirs, (2) whether inter vivos gifts to heirs should qualify as advancements on the inheritances of those heirs under conditions of partial intestacy, and, most broadly, (3) whether courts should fill in the incomplete portion of an individual's estate plan by extrapolating from the distributive preferences set …

Non-Judicial Estate Settlement, John H. Martin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Estate settlement through probate procedures satisfies no one. The public is hostile to the delay, expense, and lack of privacy that accompanies probate. Attorneys respond to public dissatisfaction by counseling probate avoidance. Legislatures facilitate some settlements by enacting simplified procedures for low-value estates. In large measure, the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) was a response to criticisms leveled at probate. Alternative settlement procedures are offered by the UPC, including informal testacy determinations and informal appointment procedures. These alternatives, however, remain imbedded in a judicial system, with it procedural rigidities. The UPC informal settlement alternatives did not silence the criticism. The continued …

Shattering And Moving Beyond The Gutenberg Paradigm: The Dawn Of The Electronic Will, Joseph Karl Grant

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Legislators in Nevada have already acted to modernize the law of wills. This Article advocates that other states follow their lead and depart from what is described as the "Gutenberg Paradigm" by adopting similar legislation and embracing electronic technology. Part One of this Article explores the history of print, Johann Gutenberg's role in this development, and the emergence of the "Gutenberg Paradigm." Part Two examines the history and policy underpinnings of will execution formalities, and the role of the "writing" requirement. Part Three explores the use of electronic wills as conforming and nonconforming testamentary instruments. More specifically, Part Three highlights …

Inheritance, Wealth, And Society, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Inheritance, Wealth, and Society by Ronald Chester

Trusts And The Doctrine Of Estates, Olin L. Browder Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The "doctrine of estates" is the common law system for the classification of divided ownership. Its primary purpose is to differentiate the legal consequences of the variety of concurrent, present, and future estates, but it also serves to differentiate the dispositive language required to create or transfer such estates. The doctrine of estates, therefore, embraces a sizable part of the law of conveyancing, including the large body of doctrine known as rules of construction.

In modern practice the classification and construction of present and future interests usually occurs with respect to beneficial interests in trust. It has not been sufficiently …

The Tax Recommendations Of The Commission On The Bankruptcy Laws--Income Tax Liabilities Of The Estate And The Debtor, William T. Plumb Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The Commission on the Bankruptcy Laws of the United States (Commission), pursuant to congressional mandate, has reported its recommendations for the first comprehensive revision of the bankruptcy laws since the Chandler Act of 1938. This Article deals with the proposals concerning the obligation of the trustee in bankruptcy to file returns of income and to pay federal and state taxes on the income, and concerning the calculation of the taxable incomes of the bankrupt estate and the debtor (including their rights to utilize each other's carryovers), as well as with certain problems in those areas in which the Commission has …

Bankruptcy Proceedings For Insolvent Decedents' Estates, Richard V. Wellman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Under present law, bankruptcy proceedings cannot be instituted by or against insolvent decedents' estates. Creditors of insolvent decedents must look to state probate laws for satisfaction. But these laws are more concerned with the control of solvent estates than with the affairs of the impecunious. Also, transfers of wealth at death by nonprobate means are coming to be the rule rather than the exception, and it is frequently very difficult for creditors of decedents to obtain satisfaction of unsecured claims from nonprobate assets. This article advocates the extension of bankruptcy laws to insolvent decedents' estates and explores problems and solutions …

Private Trusts For Indefinite Beneficiaries, George E. Palmer

Michigan Law Review

Recently, in McPhail v. Doulton (In re Baden's Deed Trusts), the House of Lords reached a decision that marks an important change in the English law of trusts which could be important also for American law. It held that there is a single test of validity for private trusts and for powers of appointment where the issue is whether the beneficiaries of the trust or the objects of the power are sufficiently definite, and that this single test is that applicable to powers of appointment. For nearly 170 years, since the decision in Morice v. Bishop of Durham, …

Recent Patterns Of Testate Succession In The United States And England, Olin L. Browder Jr.

Michigan Law Review

This study purports to be in part a comparison of American and English testamentary practices. The virtual absence in England of estate records as we know them imposed limitations on the attainment of this objective. For present purposes, data concerning English practices were derived almost entirely from one hundred English wills selected at random from those filed during the year 1963 in the Principal Probate Registry in London. To the extent that these wills came from all over England and Wales, they can be regarded as representative of English practices generally. But the much smaller size of the sample in …