Estates and Trusts Commons^™

An Opportunity Not To Be Missed: The Future Of Comparative Law In The United States, Ugo Mattei

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Ugo Mattei

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Functions Of Trust Law: A Comparative Legal And Economic Analysis, Ugo Mattei

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Equitable Compensation For Public Trust Takings, James R. Rasband

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Flesh Of My Flesh But Not My Heir: Unintended Disinheritance, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

This article briefly explains how the laws of intestacy and adoption work together, providing background information on second parent adoptions. It then describes why these laws are inadequate for same sex partners who adopt each others' children. It is impractical to cover statutes throughout the United States, and because I seek legal reform in California, this article focuses on California statutes, with occasional reference to the Uniform Probate Code. However, the problems caused by California's statutes also arise in other states with similar statutes. Therefore, the issues raised in this article, as well as the solutions proposed, are relevant in …

"Deadbeat Dads": Should Support And Inheritance Be Linked?, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Theory Of The Dead Hand, William K.S. Wang, Adam J. Hirsch

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fundraising (And Maybe Acquisition Planning) With Charitable Remainder Trusts, William T. Hutton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Of Unrequited Deductions (And Lost Hopes), William T. Hutton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Easements In The Wake Of Catastrophe: The Legal Fallout, William T. Hutton, Walter T. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Primer #3: Donations Of Appreciated Property-Income Tax Consequences, William T. Hutton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Primer #2: Options, William T. Hutton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Primer #1: Bargain Sales, William T. Hutton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mclennan I: Does The Government Have An Attitude Problem?, William T. Hutton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Charitable Contribution Planning: Perils And Precautions, William T. Hutton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Puzzling Persistence Of The Constrained Prudent Man Rule, Jeffrey N. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Gordon examines a seeming paradox: How did a rule named for the "prudent man," with its connotations of wisdom and judiciousness, become a constraint that discourages trustees and other fiduciaries from making investments now regularly favored by prudent investors? He argues that the current understanding of the Prudent Man Rule, the standard governing investments by trustees and other financial fiduciaries, is founded on a narrow conception of risk and safety that has been superseded by contemporary understanding of markets and investments, and in particular, portfolio theory. He identifies three factors that have prevented the Rule from evolving in response …

Trust Termination: Unborn, Living, And Dead Hands–Too Many Fingers In The Trust Pie, Gail Boreman Bird

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Litigation And Corporate Governance: An Essay On Steering Between Scylla And Charybdis, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Criticism of the ALI's Corporate Governance Project has had two very different strains. Most vocal have been those critics who exhibit what one sympathetic observer has aptly termed "a neurotic fear of articulation." Although their expressed concern – namely, that courts will be encouraged to second guess boards and impose liability for arm's length business decisions that turned sour – would be a legitimate cause for anxiety if this indeed were the intent or likely effect of the Project, the underlying fear of these critics is more basic and instinctive. It is best revealed in the title of one critique …

Timing Under A Unified Wealth Transfer Tax, Theodore S. Sims

Faculty Scholarship

The United States taxes gifts made while an individual is living more leniently than it taxes wealth transfers at death. Although in some measure this disparity has existed since the enactment of the modern estate and gift taxes in 1916 and 1932, it was significantly narrowed by the Tax Reform Act of 1976 (the 1976 Act). That statute replaced the separate gift and estate taxes with a regime that taxes the cumulative total of an individual's lifetime taxable gifts and his taxable estate at death, under a single (or "unified") graduated table of rates. Nevertheless, there remains a signficant difference …

Revocation Of A Revoking Codicil: The Renaissance Of Revival In California, Gail Boreman Bird

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sleight Of Handwriting: The Holographic Will In California, Gail Boreman Bird

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Carryover Basis: An Observation, An Irony, And A Proposal, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Alan L. Feld is a Boston University Law School professor and visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In this article Feld describes the changes in the treatment of capital gains transferred at death that were enacted in the Tax Reform Act of 1976. Feld notes that tax reformers would have preferred to tax capital gains at death but accepted the carryover basis provision as a second-best solution.

He reports that in the case of the very largest estates, the combined, effect of carryover basis and the lower estate tax rates results at most in a total estate …

Uniformity In State Inheritance Laws: How Upc Article Ii Has Fared In Nine Enactments, Richard V. Wellman, James W. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The Uniform Probate Code was drafted to facilitate modernization, simplification, and uniformity of state inheritance laws. Since its approval by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and by the American Bar Association in August 1969, the Code has been enacted in various forms by 11 states. In this Article, the Authors analyze significant deviations from the recommended version of article II in the first nine enactments of the UPC. The Authors argue that all but exceptionally meritorious changes in enacted versions of the UPC should give way to the goal of state uniformity in inheritance laws, and …

The Definition Of Disability In Social Security And Supplemental Security Income: Drawing The Bounds Of Social Welfare Estates, Lance Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

Federal aid to the disabled is a vast enterprise; over nine billion dollars are annually paid to five million beneficiaries. In this Article, Professor Liebman points out how the ad hoc nature of social welfare legislation and programming has resulted in a system that produces inconsistent and sometimes inequitable determinations of disability. The present system, he argues, draws significant economic and social distinctions among the disabled, as well as distinctions between the disabled and the unemployed, that have been inadequately explained and justified. By focusing on worker expectations generated by the administration of our disability programs, and on the structural …

The Uniform Probate Code: Article Iii Analyzed In Relation To Changes In The First Nine Enactments, Richard V. Wellman, James W. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The eleven pioneer states that have adopted the Uniform Probate Code have amended its provisions in various ways. This Article reviews the changes made in article III, the central procedural section of the Code. The Authors analyze the import of these amendments, considering the interplay between the carefully drafted provisions of the Code and its policy of uniformly minimizing the iudicial intervention and expense involved in the administration of estates. The Authors' analysis of these first enactments should prove helpful in those states currently considering adoption of the Uniform Probate Code as well as to lawyers and the courts in …

Flexibility, The Uniform Probate Code's Procedural Article And Some Comparisons With Kentucky Statutes, James W. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The present state of the law in America governing the succession to decedents' estates is badly in need of reform. There is a growing awareness of the inadequacy of present probate procedure even among ordinary citizens unschooled in the law. The public awareness of the problems of probate and its demand for reform are apparent from the spate of articles and books which have dealt with probate "pains" and methods for avoiding them. This demand and the efforts of reform-minded scholars have culminated in a proposed solution--the Uniform Probate Code (UPC). This Author argues that the probate scheme of the …

Presumption That Estate Income Is Allocated Among Multiple Beneficiaries In Proportion To Their Receipt Of Total Distributions Given Conclusive Rather Than Rebuttable Effect, Calvin R. Massey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Taxation Of Unrealized Gains At Death – An Evaluation Of The Current Proposals, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

The failure to tax the appreciation of capital assets transferred at death has been described as the major shortcoming of existing federal income tax laws. From time to time since 1942, the Department of the Treasury and others have urged alteration of the rule which underlies this failure. Recently the House Ways and Means Committee held panel discussions and public hearings on the subject of tax reform during which consideration was given to the possibility of changing the laws dealing with taxation of appreciated property at death. In its recommendations to the Committee, the Treasury Department did not push for …

Evans V. Abney: Reverting To Segregation, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Operation Of Joint Wills In Texas, Bertel M. Sparks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.