Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Families For Tax Purposes: What About The Steps, Wendy G. Gerzog

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At least 4.4 million families in the U.S. are blended ones that include step-children and step-parents. For tax purposes, these steps receive preferential treatment for their status because they are on the one hand included as family members for many income tax benefit sections, but on the other hand excluded as family members for business entity attribution purposes and for gift and estate tax anti-abuse provisions. In the interests of fairness and uniformity, steps should be treated as family members for all tax purposes where steps have in fact voluntarily acted as their biological or adoptive counterparts, both when such …

Negron: Circuits Now Split 2-2, Wendy G. Gerzog

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The article discusses Negron and the circuit split on the issue of whether to value non-assignable lottery payments in a decedent's estate by means of the actuarial tables or whether that value needs to be discounted for non-marketability.

Valuation Discounting Techniques: Terms Gone Awry, Wendy G. Gerzog

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Fair market value is defined in the section 2031 Regulations. For its validity, that definition of fair market value relies on the normal definitions of its significant terms: a seller is someone who is seeking the highest price for her product and a buyer is someone who wants to obtain the lowest price for his purchase. It is only that tension that creates the realistic, and fair, market value of that asset. Indeed, without that conflict, the definition is comprised of hollow words.

In the context of family limited partnerships, terms have been misused. By utilizing the limited partnership shell, …

From The Greedy To The Needy, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In some instances when the taxpayer makes a charitable donation, the loss of revenue to the government, and the corresponding gain to the taxpayer, far exceeds the benefit to the charity. Some of these losses may be generated by government sanctioned complex transactions and even government created devices. This article proposes a new way to examine "quid pro quo" charitable gifts that reflects the rationale for the charitable deduction.The article analyzes various charitable donations in terms of the dollars gained by the taxpayer, the dollars lost by the government, and the dollars received by the charity. After considering a sliding …

From The Dead Hand To The Living Dead: The Conundrum Of Charitable Donor Standing (Symposium), Evelyn Brody

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No abstract provided.

Charity Governance: What’S Trust Law Got To Do With It? (Symposium), Evelyn Brody

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No abstract provided.

Whose Public?: Parochialism And Paternalism In State Charity Law Enforcement, Evelyn Brody

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This piece was inspired by the increasing tendency of State attorneys general – backed up by courts and legislatures – to effectively confiscate the assets of wealthy nonprofits through overreaching enforcement actions. The article develops a legal framework for ascertaining the proper State role. It reviews many case studies including, most notoriously, the thwarted diversification of the Milton Hershey School Trust out of Hershey Foods Corporation (an investment worth over $5 billion) – thereby preserving the local operations of a publicly traded company. While few state attorneys general have the funding and inclination to engage in aggressive charity enforcement, the …

Shape Up Or Ship Out: Accountability To Third Parties For Patent Ambiguities In Testamentary Documents, Angela M. Vallario

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The attorney's preparation of a testamentary document (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a will or revocable trust) should clearly and accurately reflect the client's last wishes. Although these testamentary documents should reflect the client's intent, they often fall short of accomplishing that goal. There are numerous examples of will and trust construction cases that exhaust tremendous resources in an effort to ascertain the client's wishes or intent. Many of these cases involve the construction of patent and/or latent ambiguities which should have been resolved by appropriate drafting. This article's scope is limited to patent ambiguities caused by the attorney's negligence …

Spousal Election: Suggested Equitable Reform For The Division Of Property At Death, Angela M. Vallario

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Testators have traditionally enjoyed immense discretion in directing the disposition of their wealth upon death; however, when a spouse survives the testator, public policy dictates a limitation on the testator's ability to dispose of property. American jurisdictions impose this limitation through the elective share in common law states and by the nature of property ownership in community property states. Ideally, this limitation should ensure equitable financial protection for the surviving spouse and protect his or her interest in assets that were accumulated with the decedent, yet the current elective share methods fall short of these goals.

I Say It's Spinach: Charitable Trusts To Remedy Market Failures In The Performing Arts, Jeffrey G. Sherman

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No abstract provided.

Estate Planning Malpractice: Is Strict Privity Here To Stay?, Angela M. Vallario

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Under Maryland case law, a plaintiff in an estate planning malpractice action must be in strict privity with the attorney who drafted the will. To date, Maryland has not extended the third-party beneficiary exception to the estate planning arena.

Legatees specifically identified in a will by name or class are generally precluded from bringing a cause of action against the attorney for the attorney's alleged negligence, because in Maryland in order to recover for legal malpractice, a plaintiff must:show: "(1) the attorney's employment; (2) his neglect of a reasonable duty; and (3) loss to the client proximately caused by that …

The Twilight Of Organizational Form For Charity: Musings On Norman Silber, A Corporate Form Of Freedom: The Emergence Of The Modern Nonprofit Sector (Book Review), Evelyn Brody

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No abstract provided.

Last Gasp Estate Planning: The Formation Of Family Limited Liability Entities Shortly Before Death, Walter D. Schwidetzky

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Family limited partnerships have been popular gift and estate tax planning vehicles for many years. In recent years, family limited liability companies (LLCs) have also become common, particularly in those states that have updated their statutes to take the check-the-box regulations into account. LLCs with more than one member are usually classified as partnerships for federal income tax purposes. In a typical structure, when there is adequate planning, the donors form a limited partnership or an LLC (jointly, 'family limited liability entity' or FLLE), to which they contribute assets expected to appreciate in value. This article will focus on such …

Living Trusts In The Unauthorized Practice Of Law: A Good Thing Gone Bad, Angela M. Vallario

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An elderly man recently lost his wife and visits the lawyer's office for assistance in the administration of her estate. After the attorney expresses her condolences, she asks if his wife had a will. The client reaches into a brown shopping bag and retrieves a two-and-a-half inch black binder containing several trusts. The elderly gentleman and his deceased wife were told this would eliminate the expensive legal nightmare of probate. Unfortunately, like many others, this couple was victimized by a trust mill.

Posthumous Meddling: An Instrumental Theory Of Testamentary Restraints On Conjugal And Religious Choices, Jeffrey G. Sherman

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No abstract provided.

Death By A Thousand Cuts: The Rule Against Perpetuities, Angela M. Vallario

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This article suggests the policy and social justifications against dead hand control far outweigh transfer tax advantages provided to wealthy settlors and the potential revenue expected to be generated by the abolishment legislation. The abolishment legislation may be readily adopted by other jurisdictions in light of the legislatures' failure to recognize the consequences of unlimited dead hand control.

This article recognizes that the Rule is complicated, and Rule violations present harsh consequences for practitioners and their clients. In fact, violations of the Rule, due to its complexity, have been held as an attorney error, not subject to a malpractice claim. …

The Limits Of Charity Fiduciary Law, Evelyn Brody

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Trustees of charitable trusts and directors of nonprofit corporations operate under legal regimes designed for their for-profit cousins. In the absence of private beneficiaries or shareholders to look after their own interests, however, charity fiduciaries frequently escape accountability for their self-dealing and neglect or mismanagement. Few charities have members endowed with voting rights, and state attorneys general have limited resources to devote to monitoring the nonprofit sector. Similarly, at the federal level, the Internal Revenue Service is a tax collector, not a policing agency (although its new powers to tax excess benefits will undoubtedly draw it further into charity operations). …

All You Really Need To Know About Subchapter J You Learned From This Article, Jeffrey G. Sherman

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No abstract provided.

What Have You Done For Me Lately? Constitutional Limitations On State Taxation Of Trusts, Bradley E.S. Fogel

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Suppose a resident of New Jersey creates an irrevocable inter vivos trust.' The settlor subsequently dies while a resident of New Jersey. Pursuant to the terms of her will, which is probated in New Jersey, her entire estate is paid to the trust. After a few years, one of the two trustees is a New York resident, the other is a resident of Connecticut. The trust's assets, intangibles such as stock in Delaware corporations, are held by the New York trustee in New York. All of the income beneficiaries of the trust reside in New York or Connecticut.2

Question: To …

Hairsplitting Under I.R.C. Section 2035(D): The Cause And The Cure, Jeffrey G. Sherman

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No abstract provided.

Trusting Our Partners: An Essay On Resetting The Estate Planning Defaults For An Adult World, Henry Ordower

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Demonstrates that there is no tax savings to be achieved by using a trust to restrict a donee's control of property and money transferred gifts during life or at death. Reviews reasons why donors wish to continue to control wealth even after death and suggests that such reasoning is fallacious. Recommends to the estate planning bar that it revise its approach to planning in order to fulfill its obligations to the principal client and other family members. Develops mathematical formulas for analysis of estate planning decisions.

Mercy Killing And The Right To Inherit, Jeffrey G. Sherman

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No abstract provided.

Undue Influence And The Homosexual Testator, Jeffrey G. Sherman

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No abstract provided.