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On Becoming Charitable: Predicting And Encouraging Charitable Bequests In Wills, Kristine Knaplund
On Becoming Charitable: Predicting And Encouraging Charitable Bequests In Wills, Kristine Knaplund
Kristine Knaplund
On Becoming Charitable: Predicting and Encouraging Charitable Bequests in Wills Kristine S. Knaplund, Professor of Law What causes people to leave their property to charity in their wills? Many scholars have explored the effects of tax laws on charitable bequests, but now that more than 99% of Americans’ estates are exempt from federal taxes, what non-tax factors predict charitable giving? This Article explores charitable bequests before the federal estate tax and a deduction for charitable bequests were enacted by Congress. By examining two years of probate files in Los Angeles and St. Louis, in which 16.6% of St. Louis testators, …