Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Shoemaker V. Gindlesberger: The Lack Of Privity Defense Survives, But Just Barely, Alan Newman

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In Shoemaker v. Gindlesberger, decided in May of this year, the Ohio Supreme Court held that: “A beneficiary of a decedent's will may not maintain a negligence action against an attorney for the preparation of a deed that results in increased tax liability for the estate.” In doing so, the Court approved and followed its 1987 decision in Simon v. Zipperstein. Under Zipperstein, an attorney who prepares a will for a client can not be liable in negligence to a third person the client intended to benefit under the will unless (i) the third person was in privity with the …

Conditional Love: Incentive Trusts And The Inflexibility Problem, Joshua C. Tate

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article examines the contemporary phenomenon of incentive trusts: trusts that use money to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. Using evidence from Internet websites, practitioner articles, and newspaper articles, the Article considers the likely provisions that a typical incentive trust might have, and explains how such trusts might lead to a problem of inflexibility when they are not drafted so as to take into account the possibility of changed circumstances. The Article also examines current law regarding trust modification and termination as well as recent reform proposals, and suggests some alternatives that might better take into account the particular characteristics …

In Re Est. Of Dauphinais Bird, 97-P-03 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., 1997), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Court Decisions

• Decedent passed away without having an established will. Darrell W. Bird filed an application for informal appointment as personal representative, and soon after decedents mother, father, and her stepfather also filed to be personal representative.  

• All applicants and their counsel met for a hearing, under which the Court heard testimony and took evidence. At its end, the Tribal Court ordered the appointment of Darrell W. Bird and Jame B. Dauphinais, decedents father, as co-personal representatives.  

• Decedent’s mother, Ramona Jackson, appealed the order while the father and stepfather did not. The father did file an amicus brief after the expired time …

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Estate Creditors, The Constitution, And The Uniform Probate Code, Sarajane Love

Scholarly Works

The United States Supreme Court's decision in Tulsa Professional Collection Services, Inc. v. Pope caused the usually staid legal enclave of estate administration to sit alert. The Court declared unconstitutional an Oklahoma statute that barred creditors of decedents from filing claims against the decedents' estates two months after published notice of the commencement of probate proceedings. The statute violated the due process rights of known and reasonably ascertainable creditors because it did not require a better form of notice to them. In failing to require actual notice to known creditors, the statute was not drastically atypical of other statutes regulating …

Kentucky's Doctrine Of Advancements: A Time For Reform, Carolyn S. Bratt

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The act of giving a gift is accomplished so easily that the legal consequences often escape the donor. Even when a donor stops to contemplate the legal significance of her or his act, a parental donor probably is unaware that a gift to a child may affect the child's inheritance rights in the parent's estate. Kentucky is among the minority of states which continue to presume that a parental gift is intended as an advancement to the child donee. Moreover, Kentucky is one of only two states which make the presumption irrebutable. The value of the gift is charged against …

Valuing Oil And Mineral Interests For Estate Planning Purposes, Lawrence H. Averill

Law Faculty Scholarship

In this article, the author discusses a number of factors which should be considered when valuing oil and mineral interests, with a primary emphasis on estate planning concerns. The article to a large extent focuses on the various techniques utilized in the valuation process, and in so doing, considers a number of key concepts and terms and identifies problems which commonly arise in the valuation of oil and mineral assets.

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 …

Surviving Spouse's Distributive Share Of Amendable Trusts, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Purcell v. Cleveland Trust Co., 200 N.E.2d 602, 28 Ohio Op. 2d 262 (P. Ct. 1964). Approximately three years before her death in 1960, plaintiff's wife created an amendable and revocable inter vivos trust, naming defendant as trustee. The formally drawn instrument provided for pour-over from her simultaneously executed will, however, a specific bequest to the trust was apparently never made. After his wife's death, plaintiff, choosing to exercise his statutory prerogative of taking against his wife's will: demanded that defendant trustee pay over to h i from the corpus of the inter vivos trust the one-half share which he …

Distribution To "Issue" - Clarke V. Clarke, Jon F. Oster

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Testator's Intention As A Factor In Determining The Place Of Probate Of His Estate

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Joint Bank Accounts As A Fraud On The Marital Rights Of The Surviving Spouse - Whittington V. Whittington

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

Taxation--Estate Tax--Alimony Deduction, J. G. H.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Taxation--Special Assignments For Local Improvements--Personal Property Locally Situated Not Subject To Assessment, W. C. M.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Statutory Solution Of Uncertainty As To Fact And Time Of Death - Lachowicz V. Lechowicz

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Admissibility Of Foreign Will To Probate - In Re Will Of Pritchard

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Fiduciary's Duty Of Loyalty, Roger A. Clapp

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disposition Of Void And Otherwise Failing Devises In Maryland

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.