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Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Law
American Probate: Protecting The Public, Improving The Process, Paula Monopoli
American Probate: Protecting The Public, Improving The Process, Paula Monopoli
Paula A Monopoli
New Hampshire judge and probate attorney John Fairbanks, a court-appointed executor and trustee, stole thousands of dollars from the estates of his trusting elderly clients. Successful Virginia lawyer David Murray misappropriated nearly four million dollars from estates entrusted to him in one of the largest financial swindles by a lawyer in U.S. history. Enterprising attorney James Gunderson drafted wills and living trusts for many residents of Leisure World in Orange County, California, who named him the sole trustee and major beneficiary. These are just some of the cases examined by Paula A. Monopoli to illustrate the unsettling prevalence of fraud …
Of Charities And Clawbacks: The European Union Proposal On Successions And Wills As A Threat To Charitable Giving, Aaron Schwabach
Of Charities And Clawbacks: The European Union Proposal On Successions And Wills As A Threat To Charitable Giving, Aaron Schwabach
Faculty Scholarship
In the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent the United States, an inter vivos gift, once given, cannot be reclaimed by the giver's heirs. In civil law countries the situation is quite different: Not only spouses, but issue and in some cases even ascendants, are entitled to a forced share of a decedent's estate--and these forced shares are assessed against a notional “estate” that includes the testator's inter vivos gifts. If the total of these forced shares exceeds the amount actually available in the decedent's estate at death, the recipients of the gifts, or their successors, may be forced …
The Game Is Afoot!: The Significance Of Donative Transfers In The Sherlock Holmes Canon, Stephen R. Alton
The Game Is Afoot!: The Significance Of Donative Transfers In The Sherlock Holmes Canon, Stephen R. Alton
Faculty Scholarship
This article presents a recently discovered and previously unpublished manuscript written by John H. Watson, M.D., and annotated by Professor Stephen Alton. Dr. Watson’s manuscript records an extended conversation that took place between the good doctor and his great friend, the renowned consulting detective Mr. Sherlock Holmes, regarding issues of gratuitous transfers of property – issues involving inheritances, wills, and trusts – that have arisen in some of the great cases solved by Mr. Holmes. This felicitous discovery confirms something that Professor Alton has long known: these gratuitous transfer issues permeate many of these adventures. Often, the action in the …
Trusts & Estates (Annual Survey Of Michigan Law, June 1, 2011 - May 31, 2012), Susan E. Cancelosi
Trusts & Estates (Annual Survey Of Michigan Law, June 1, 2011 - May 31, 2012), Susan E. Cancelosi
Law Faculty Research Publications
The Survey period began only two months after the Michigan Trust Code took effect. Thus, attorneys handling matters subject to the new trust law were only beginning to delve into how their practices will change. At the same time, estate planners who handle larger estates spent the first part of the Survey period on edge about federal estate tax uncertainty. Although Congress in mid-December 2010 did act to extend the estate tax relief of the past decade, it did so only temporarily, leaving many questions for future planning. With the new Michigan Trust Code and the federal estate tax changes, …
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 …