Estates and Trusts Commons^™

The Effect Of Guardianship On Estate Plans, George T. Stevenson

Michigan Law Review

One responds to the certainty of death with dread and respect, and one lays plans for the event. Few, however, admit or even think of the possibility that they may become incompetent in their old age; hence, provision is rarely made for this possibility in estate plans. The increased longevity resulting from the recent rapid strides in medicine has as its corollary an increase both in the number of persons who become incompetent before death and the duration of their affliction. This poses a challenge to estate planners and the law of guardianship.

Today the guardianship of the person of …

Defeasance As A Restrictive Device In Michigan, William F. Fratcher

Michigan Law Review

Quite apart from any question of their validity, the imposition of use restrictions by means of a prohibition was not practicable before the development of equitable remedies because the common law afforded no method of enforcing such a prohibition. One who conveyed land in violation of a prohibition on alienation might attempt to enforce the prohibition by attacking the validity of his own conveyance but one who violated a prohibition on use had neither motive nor method for challenging his own acts. Hence attempts to restrict use by common law devices are necessarily confined to penalty restraints and to limitations …