Law Commons^™

Matter Of Will Of Ratcliff And The Not-So-Harmless Error: A Call To Change Mississippi’S Approach To Will Formalities, Kelsi Baldwin

Mississippi College Law Review

A will provides a mechanism to dispose of property at death. But costly litigation—or worse, a will’s invalidation—often thwart this purpose. The law of probate is state-specific, which leaves jurisdictions with the burden of ensuring that their laws promote rather than defeat the purpose of probate—to honor the testator’s intent. Mississippi attempts to recognize this purpose by requiring strict compliance with the statutory requirements for creating a will. This “better safe than sorry” approach errs on the side of invalidity with the hope that denying a non-compliant instrument for probate will prevent fraud and other wrongdoing.

Despite its intention, Mississippi’s …

Intellectual Heirs Property: Why Certain Musical Copyrights Should Be Included In The Heirs Property Reform Movement, Austin Weatherly

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The modern heirs property reform movement seeks to ameliorate the issues caused by the procedures governing the inheritance of real property from landowners who die intestate. This procedure can have a negative impact on heirs and the value of their inherited property. The reform movement, as it stands, only seeks to resolve the issues created by these procedures in the real property context. The rhetorical basis for the modern heirs property reform movement largely focuses on closing the racial wealth gap in the United States and slowing the wealth bleed from one black generation to the next. Many of the …

Cuban Asset Control Regulations: The Transfer Of Estate Assets To Cuban Heirs Under The Obama And Trump Administrations, Madeleine N. Elser

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sb 301 - Wills, Trusts, And Administration Of Estates, Morgan S. Ownbey, Paul M. Napolitano

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act creates the “Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act,” extends fiduciaries’ powers to include managing tangible property and digital assets, and provides conforming cross-references for a conservator.

Hb 121 - Property, Wills, Trusts, And Estates, Colt Burnett, Ben Dell'orto

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act amends several aspects of trust law, including updating the application of the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities in Georgia by extending the time within which a nonvested property interest or power of appointment must vest from 90 to 360 years. The Act also allows for modifications of a trust without judicial approval in some cases. Many passages are simplified, including the calculation of compensation for a trustee, which can now be modified through different procedures. Finally, the Act codifies the role of trust directors.

The Limited Duties Of Lawyers To Protect The Funds And Property Of Nonclients, Vincent R. Johnson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Issues arise daily in law practice about the duties owed by lawyers to nonclients with respect to funds or property entrusted to them. In resolving those issues, care must be exercised when interpreting state versions of Model Rule 1.15, the American Bar Association’s pattern ethics rule on safekeeping of funds and property. Otherwise, a lawyer’s duties to third persons may too readily encroach on the performance of obligations owed to clients, as well as on the legitimate interests of lawyers themselves.

As numerous authorities have recognized, lawyers are obliged to protect the property interests of third persons only if they …

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.

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

The 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 on privatization, and …

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

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arkansas’S Trust Code And Trust Planning: A Ten-Year Perspective, Lynn Foster

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

In 2001, the Uniform Law Commission adopted the Uniform Trust Code, which regulates certain aspects of trusts. One impetus for the trust code was the ever-increasing popularity of revocable trusts as part of standard estate planning packages. Another was the fact that few states—including Arkansas—had well-developed common law trust rules, let alone any statutory trust codes. In 2005, the Arkansas legislature enacted a slightly modified version of the Uniform Trust Code (UTC), titled the Arkansas Trust Code (ATC). At that time, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review published my article summarizing the most important features of the …

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

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exposing The Hocus Pocus Of Trusts, Kent D. Schenkel

Akron Law Review

Part II makes the conceptual case for viewing the trust as an elective cost-externalization device. Part III offers the spendthrift trust as the archetypal model for purposes of our analysis, briefly describes the spendthrift trust, and explores its consequences to outsiders to the trust deal. Part IV offers some reasons why the elective externalities of trusts persist. Part V first examines and rejects a couple of approaches to minimizing the externalized costs of trusts that rely on the “bundle of sticks” approach to property interests. It then moves beyond the bundle of sticks approach, settling on a solution based on …

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

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fiduciary Duties And Exculpatory Clauses: Clash Of The Titans Or Cozy Bedfellows, Louise Lark Hill

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Centuries ago, when land represented the majority of wealth, the trust was used primarily for holding and transferring real property. As the dominant form of wealth moved away from family land, the trust evolved into a device for managing financial assets. With this transformation came the use of exculpatory clauses by both amateur and professional trustees, providing an avenue for these fiduciaries to escape liability for designated acts. With the use of exculpatory provisions, discussion abounded about whether fiduciary duties were mandatory or subject to modification. The latter view eventually prevailed, with the majority of jurisdictions viewing fiduciary duties as …

Undeserving Heirs?--The Case Of The "Terminated" Parent, Richard Lewis Brown

University of Richmond Law Review

Every state has an intestate succession statute that prescribes how the property of those who die without a will should be distributed. Every state also by statute authorizes the government to intervene in the parent-child relationship in the most draconian manner possible by involuntarily terminating parental rights. This article explores how the law functions at the intersection of these two statutory schemes-the inheritance regime, as expressed through intestate succession statutes, and the child welfare regime, as expressed through termination of parental rights statutes ("TPR statutes").

Property Law: The Uniform Conservation Easements Act: An Attorney's Guide For The Oklahoma Landowner, Erin Mcdaniel

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uniform Probate Code Upends The Law Of Remainders, Jesse Dukeminier

Michigan Law Review

Nothing is more settled in the law of remainders than that an indefeasibly vested remainder is transmissible to the remainderman's heirs or devisees upon the remainderman's death. Thus, where a grantor conveys property "to A for life, then to B and her heirs," B's remainder passes to B's heirs or devisees if B dies during the life of A. Inheritability of vested remainders was recognized in the time of Edward I, and devisability was recognized with the Statute of Wills in 1540.

Section 6104(D) Of The Pennsylvania Rule Against Perpetuities: The Validity And Effect Of The Retroactive Application Of Property And Probate Law Reform, Leonard Levin

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New York Law Of Interstate Succession Compared With The Uniform Probate Code: Where There's No Will There's A Way, Julian R. Kossow

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The purpose of this Article is to analyze, compare, and contrast New York’s law of intestacy with that of the Uniform Probate Code (Code). The Article may serve as a basis for estimating the impact on existing concepts of descent and distribution should New York adopt the Code. It addresses itself to the law of intestate succession, delves into present New York law on the subject, examines corresponding sections of the Code, analyzes the differences, and arrives at an evaluation of the benefits and detriments that adoption of the Code would bring. The final analysis reveals that, on balance, the …

Adopted Children In Pennsylvania: A Class Without A Clause, Bruce M. Dolfman, James Charles Schwartzman

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Neill H. Alford, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

For the decade 1960-1970, any available prize for the most stimulating product of interest to estate planners by an individual writer certainly should go to Dean Thomas L. Shaffer' for "Death, Property, and Lawyers." This is an imaginative and stimulating book. A practicing lawyer who gives close attention to Dean Shaffer's work should be aided in evaluating his relationships with his estate planning clients. Even if this lawyer cannot be brought to a detailed evaluation, he at least will be brought to the threshold of introspection. Dean Shaffer does not attempt to unravel the whole "psychological story" in estate planning; …

Property--Fee Simple Determinables--Distinguishing Characteristics, James Alan Harris

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conflict Of Laws And Joint Bank Accounts - An Autopsy Of A Case, Joseph C. Kelly

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Civil Law Succession, George A. Pelletier Jr., Michael Roy Sonnenreich

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Transfers In Contemplation Of Death - The Golden Anniversary Of Chaos, Thomas C. Siekman

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wills--Equitable Conversion, Robert Willis Walker

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Future For Girard's Dream, Henry S. Hilles Jr., Wilfred B. Wolcott Jr.

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Planning Incompetents' Estates Via Inter-Vivos Distributions, Joseph C. Kelly

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Property--Cancellation Of Note At Payee's Death Not Testamentary Gift, Ralph Judy Bean Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Executors And Administrators-Sale Of Realty In The Estate-Better Price As Reason For Permitting Sale Under "Best Interests Of The Estate" Provision, William J. Bogaard

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to a Missouri statute permitting sale of real property for any purpose in the best interests of the estate, administrator filed a petition for power to sell realty in the estate of the decedent for the reason, inter alia, that a better price could be obtained at a private sale than at a judicial sale resulting from a suit for partition. The plaintiff heir's subsequent bill for partition of the real estate was dismissed by the trial court, which found that the administrator's petition for power to sell had conferred jurisdiction of the property on the probate court. …