Law Commons^™

Marriage, Property And [In]Equality: Remedying Erisa's Disparate Impact On Spousal Wealth, Paula A. Monopoli

Paula A Monopoli

Congress is considering pension reform in the wake of the tremendous loss in market value of retirement plans during the current recession. This article suggests that this is a historic moment to remedy a previously unidentified, unintended but profound gender disparity embedded in the federal law governing retirement plans in this country. It explores the common perception that while contemporary law and policy aim to facilitate equality within marriage, including in the area of property ownership, embracing equitable distribution in reallocating property upon divorce, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) structuring of retirement asset accumulation runs counter to this …

Rudkin Testamentary Trust -- A Response To Prof. Cohen, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

In the August 3 issue of Tax Notes, Prof. Stephen Cohen wrote an article about Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s opinions in three tax cases. Of those three cases, only the opinion she wrote in William L. Rudkin Testamentary Trust v. Commissioner, 467 F.3d 149 (2d Cir. 2006), Doc 2006- 21522, 2006 TNT 203-4, is worthy of comment. Although the Second Circuit’s decision in that case was affirmed by the Supreme Court under the name Knight v. Commissioner, the construction of the critical statutory language that Justice Sotomayor adopted was rejected and criticized by Chief Justice Roberts, writing for a unanimous court. …

Can The 'Death Tax' Kill Charity Too? The Impact Of Legislation On Charitable Bequests, Kristine Knaplund

Kristine Knaplund

The national debate over the federal estate tax has caused fear in American charities over the past ten years, a fear that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Since Congress acted in 2001 to repeal the dreaded 'death tax' for one year, for those dying in 2010, charities and individuals have become increasingly concerned about the impact of a repeal on charitable donations. While only a small percentage of charitable gifts come in the form of gifts at death, these few but generous incidents in fact amount to billions of dollars, and are imperative to the operation of …

New Reasons To Remember The Estate Taxation Of Reversions, F. Philip Manns

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multiple law reform efforts are underway to reverse the no-implied-conditions-of-survivorship rule historically applying to future interests. Yet, whenever the NICS rule is reversed, a reversion arises in the transferor of the future interests—which reversion will take effect if the newly-implied conditions of survivorship fail—unless the NICS-rule-reversal reform itself negates that reversion. The most well-known NICS-rule-reversal reform, Uniform Probate Code section 2-707, negates the transferor’s reversion, but other reforms do not. When the reversion is not negated, complicated transfer tax issues arise. First, for gift tax purposes, the reversion must be valued, because the value of the reversion is subtracted in …

The Color Of Testamentary Freedom, Kevin Noble Maillard

Kevin Noble Maillard

Wills that prioritize the interests of nontraditional families over collateral heirs test courts’ dedication to observing the posthumous wishes of testators. Collateral heirs who object to will provisions that redraw the contours of “family” are likely to profit from the incompatibility of testamentary freedom and social deviance. Thus, the interests of married, white adults may claim priority over nonwhite, unmarried others. Wills that acknowledge the existence of moral or social transgressions—namely, interracial sex and reproduction—incite will contests by collateral heirs who leverage their status as white and legitimate in order to defeat testamentary intent.

This Article turns to antebellum and …

Trust Law And The Title-Split: A Beneficial Perspective, Kent D. Schenkel

Kent D Schenkel

Recent functional analyses of the trust tend to emphasize its effect on the parties to the trust deal and give less attention to the nature of the beneficiary’s interest, especially in relation to persons outside the trust transaction. In contrast, this article takes a critical approach to the trust from the primary perspective of the benefits it provides to beneficiaries. From this perspective, it finds that while the trust maintains the flexibility of a contract it also restricts legal interests of third parties who are strangers to the trust bargain; a feat that contracts are unable to accomplish. Third parties …

Max's Taxes: A Tax-Based Analysis Of Pet Trusts, Gerry W. Beyer, Jonathan P. Wilkerson

Gerry W Beyer

Humans and charities are no longer the primary entities many individuals wish to benefit upon death. Instead, there is a growing interest in providing for Rover, Fluffy, and Polly, that is, our beloved pets. There has been a recent surge of public interest in pet planning as high-profile individuals have died with significant provisions in their wills or trusts for the benefit of their animals. This increase in the special estate planning needs of pet owners is reflected by legal scholarship, continuing legal education programs, and legislative action in the pet trust arena. But little time has been devoted to …

Ohio Trust Code Update: Recent Developments, Alan Newman

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This article is based on the author’s presentations at the 20th Annual Estate Planning Conference on Wealth Transfer in Columbus on June 26, 2009.

Since its enactment in 2006, effective January 1, 2007, the Ohio Trust Code (“OTC”) has been amended, a number of cases have been decided under it, and a variety of issues related to or raised by it have been identified. This article will review those developments.

Copyright Acknowledgment: This material is reprinted from the Probate Law Journal of Ohio with permission of Thomson Reuters. Copyright permission is on file.

Marriage, Property And [In]Equality: Remedying Erisa's Disparate Impact On Spousal Wealth, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

Congress is considering pension reform in the wake of the tremendous loss in market value of retirement plans during the current recession. This article suggests that this is a historic moment to remedy a previously unidentified, unintended but profound gender disparity embedded in the federal law governing retirement plans in this country. It explores the common perception that while contemporary law and policy aim to facilitate equality within marriage, including in the area of property ownership, embracing equitable distribution in reallocating property upon divorce, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) structuring of retirement asset accumulation runs counter to this …

Got Premium? Costanza V. C.I.R. And The Tax Treatment Of Intrafamily Scins Cancelled By Death, Gadi Zohar

Gadi Zohar

In 2003, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Tax Court determination that the self-canceling installment note (SCIN) created by Duilio Costanza and his son, Michael, was a gift because it lacked the features of an arms-length transaction. It is the author's assertion that 1) the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overstepped its standard of review, and 2) both courts were lacking in an analysis of the most important evidence of a bona fide transaction: the consideration. Consideration for the transaction should have included a premium accounting for the risk that Duilio would die before the term of the …

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia) Law, 2008-2009, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 2009 Session of the General Assembly enacted wills, trusts, and estates legislation (1) preventing, in cases where persons die aft.er June 30, 2009, application of a regrettable 2008 Supreme Court of Virginia decision dealing with the rights of illegitimate heirs in intestate succession, and (2) amending Virginia's version of the Uniform Principal and Income Act to provide for taxpayer benefit and clarity in matters relating to total return unitrusts, the marital deduction, and the income taxation of trusts. In addition, there were several other enactments along with four opinions from the Supreme Court of Virginia during the one-year period …

Ohio Trust Code Update: Recent Developments, Alan Newman

Alan Newman

This article is based on the author’s presentations at the 20th Annual Estate Planning Conference on Wealth Transfer in Columbus on June 26, 2009.

Since its enactment in 2006, effective January 1, 2007, the Ohio Trust Code (“OTC”) has been amended, a number of cases have been decided under it, and a variety of issues related to or raised by it have been identified. This article will review those developments.

Copyright Acknowledgment: This material is reprinted from the Probate Law Journal of Ohio with permission of Thomson Reuters. Copyright permission is on file.

Trust, We Have A Problem: Chawla Ex Rel. Geisinger V. Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company, Its Revelation Of A Problem In Insurable Interest Statutes And The Subsequent Effect On Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Mary Mahala Gardner

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sperms And Estates: An Unadulterated Funtionally Based Approach To Parent-Child Property Succession, Lee-Ford Tritt

Lee-ford Tritt

No abstract provided.