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Articles 31 - 51 of 51
Full-Text Articles in Estates and Trusts
Closely Held Stocks—Deferral And Financing Of Estate Tax Costs Through Sections 303 And 6166, Douglas A. Kahn
Closely Held Stocks—Deferral And Financing Of Estate Tax Costs Through Sections 303 And 6166, Douglas A. Kahn
Articles
The enactment of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (hereinafter referred to as "the 1981 Act") will reduce both the impact of federal wealth transfer taxes and the number of persons still subject to them. Nevertheless, even after the 1981 Act takes full effect, a category of persons remains for whom wealth transfer taxes will constitute a meaningful burden and whose estates face a liquidity problem in satisfying the estate tax liability. The focus of this article is on two statutory techniques: redemptions of stock pursuant to section 3031 and deferral of estate tax payments under section 6166.2 These …
Recent Developments In The Struggle For Probate Reform, Richard V. Wellman
Recent Developments In The Struggle For Probate Reform, Richard V. Wellman
Michigan Law Review
The two Als being honored by this issue have honored me with years of precious friendship and many words a!!-d acts of support and encouragement. In return, they and their friends and others who may peruse these pages prepared as they near retirement really deserve better reading than can be expected of an article that wallows in the dreadful details of legislation dealing with probate procedure. Conard and Smith are old hands when it comes to efforts at improvement of law and legal institutions. They know better than to immerse themselves deeply in a piece like the one that follows, …
The Case Against Living Probate, Mary Louise Fellows
The Case Against Living Probate, Mary Louise Fellows
Michigan Law Review
This Article presents the case against living probate in hopes of preventing a reform that was appropriately discarded a century ago. Part I describes the various living probate proposals, highlighting their similarities, differences, and procedural complexities, and the benefits they seek to realize. Part II lays out four failings of living probate that call the desirability of this reform into question. Finally, in Part III, I propose an alternative reform which concentrates on the underlying problem inspiring living probate proposals - the expense and uncertainty of a mental capacity requirement for executing a valid will.
Alternative Models Of Ante-Mortem Probate And Procedural Due Process Limitations On Succession, Gregory S. Alexander, Albert M. Pearson
Alternative Models Of Ante-Mortem Probate And Procedural Due Process Limitations On Succession, Gregory S. Alexander, Albert M. Pearson
Michigan Law Review
In this Article, we shall challenge that assumption and propose a workable scheme of ante-mortem probate that both protects the testamentary plan against strike suits and preserves the confidentiality of the plan during the testator's lifetime. Section I reviews the conservatorship model as developed by Professor Langbein and identifies its objectionable features. In Section II, we address the general constitutional question of what property interests command due process protection. This context poses the constitutional problem narrowly, but our analysis has broad implications regarding constitutional notice requirements for any probate reform. Concluding in that Section that due process does not compel …
Living Probate: The Conservatorship Model, John H. Langbein
Living Probate: The Conservatorship Model, John H. Langbein
Michigan Law Review
The main purpose of the present Article is to suggest a somewhat different theoretical and practical approach to structuring the living probate procedure. I shall characterize the procedure called for in the North Dakota act and in similar proposals as the Contest Model of living probate, in distinction to a Conservatorship Model that I shall advocate to be the better way. Part I of this Article reviews briefly the problem to which living probate is addressed and the alternatives that can presently be employed to forestall post-mortem capacity litigation in the absence of a living probate system. In Part TI …
The Conservatorship Model: A Modification, Gregory S. Alexander
The Conservatorship Model: A Modification, Gregory S. Alexander
Michigan Law Review
Reform-minded probate lawyers have discussed the idea of ante-mortem probate for many years. Yet, owing to several seemingly unavoidable defects, it has never attracted widespread support · and only recently has been implemented anywhere in the United States. In his article, Living Probate: The Conservatorship Model, Professor John Langbein has eliminated many of those defects and has made the idea much more feasible. In doing so, he has contributed to the development of simple, convenient, and efficient systems of probate. However, his proposal introduces new flaws that threaten the practical working of his procedural model.
Punitive Surcharges Against Disloyal Fiduciaries--Is Rothko Right?, Richard V. Wellman
Punitive Surcharges Against Disloyal Fiduciaries--Is Rothko Right?, Richard V. Wellman
Michigan Law Review
This Article criticizes the award of a penalty surcharge in the name of appreciation damages. Contrary to the statements in the Rothko opinions, neither precedent nor treatises offers clear support for the shocking awards made against Rothko's disloyal executors. Furthermore, even if appreciation damages were to be viewed, against the thesis here advanced, as an appropriate remedy for some kinds of fiduciary breach, the measure is inappropriate for cases which, like Rothko, involve hidden conflicts of interest. This is so because the threat of severe penalties in hidden-conflict cases adds unacceptable legal costs to honest administrations-costs that cannot be …
Giving Or Leaving--What Is A Will?, Olin L. Browder
Giving Or Leaving--What Is A Will?, Olin L. Browder
Michigan Law Review
The question raised by the title of this essay should be essentially as simple as that: Do you want to give property, so that, having given it, it is no longer yours, or do you want to leave it behind at your death, directing who will receive it at that time? The statement of that issue suggests obvious differences in the consequences of inter vivos and testamentary dispositions. Most people also understand that a testamentary disposition invokes the elaborate machinery involved in the administration of a testator's estate, which confers special rights in the creditors and the spouse of the …
The Uniform Disposition Of Community Property Rights At Death Act, Sarah N. Welling
The Uniform Disposition Of Community Property Rights At Death Act, Sarah N. Welling
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In 1977, eight of the United States use community property systems instead of the common law systems used in the other 42 states. Because the community property system is totally alien to common law states which do not recognize community interests in property, when domiciliaries of a community property state migrate to a common law state problems develop over the definition of property rights. Two questions usually arise: do the spouses’ rights and interests in the community property change if they move to a common law state? And if not, how are these rights and interests protected? The first question …
The Impact Of The Uniform Probate Code On Court Structure, Ralph P. Dupont
The Impact Of The Uniform Probate Code On Court Structure, Ralph P. Dupont
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
After considering the present pattern of probate court structure in the United States, this article considers the need for probate court reform as reflected in the deficiencies of the present system. It further indicates that a realistic choice of court structure by legislatures will ultimately be made from among three options: (1) to enlarge the jurisdiction of the present probate court of the state more nearly to approximate the form currently obtaining in several states; (2) to appoint a new body of probate judges and thus create an entirely new court; and (3) to enlarge the jurisdiction of the present …
Bankruptcy Proceedings For Insolvent Decedents' Estates, Richard V. Wellman
Bankruptcy Proceedings For Insolvent Decedents' Estates, Richard V. Wellman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Under present law, bankruptcy proceedings cannot be instituted by or against insolvent decedents' estates. Creditors of insolvent decedents must look to state probate laws for satisfaction. But these laws are more concerned with the control of solvent estates than with the affairs of the impecunious. Also, transfers of wealth at death by nonprobate means are coming to be the rule rather than the exception, and it is frequently very difficult for creditors of decedents to obtain satisfaction of unsecured claims from nonprobate assets. This article advocates the extension of bankruptcy laws to insolvent decedents' estates and explores problems and solutions …
Dependent Relative Revocation And Its Relation To Relief For Mistake, George E. Palmer
Dependent Relative Revocation And Its Relation To Relief For Mistake, George E. Palmer
Michigan Law Review
When an intended legal act is induced by mistake in the sense that it would not have occurred had the actor known the truth, the generally accepted method of analysis in our law is that the act is legally effective; the mistake becomes important only in determining whether it provides a ground for setting aside or rescinding the transaction. If a donor makes a gift while laboring under some fundamental mistake such as the identity of the donee or the donee's relationship to him, the gift is in the first instance effective, but the donor may be able to obtain …
Internationally Uniform Probate Law--A Method For Improving Administration Of Multinational Estates, John G. Webb, Iii
Internationally Uniform Probate Law--A Method For Improving Administration Of Multinational Estates, John G. Webb, Iii
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
The need to coordinate succession laws of different nations was recognized as early as 1893 at the first Hague Conference where attempts were begun to coordinate the laws of succession on death through multilateral conventions. Notwithstanding so early an effort, however, the administration of multinational estates has remained plagued by diversity of national laws governing succession on death. The resulting confusion and inefficiency of administration has often frustrated the testamentary intentions of decedents of many nationalities. While no viable uniformity has been attained among nations, the need for consistency increases. Half a million United States civilian citizens live abroad, and …
Uniform Probate Code--Illegitimacy--Inheritance And The Illegitimate: A Model For Probate Reform, Michigan Law Review
Uniform Probate Code--Illegitimacy--Inheritance And The Illegitimate: A Model For Probate Reform, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Uniform Probate Code (Code), which was approved by the American Bar Association in August 1969, deals with the problem of inheritance by illegitimates both with regard to intestate succession-section 2-109-and also with regard to the construction of a bequest to "children" by will-section 2-611. This Note will examine the issue whether the Code, which presents a comprehensive model for probate reform, deals with the problem of inheritance by illegitimates in an appropriate, desirable, and constitutional manner. The Code provisions concerning illegitimacy relate to many other provisions of the Code in which childhood status is relevant; therefore, it will be …
Intestate Succession Under The Uniform Probate Code, Thomas J. Mulder
Intestate Succession Under The Uniform Probate Code, Thomas J. Mulder
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The pervasive social policy underlying the Anglo-American law on succession of property at death is freedom of testation. Our law makes meaningful one's right to decide who shall inherit his property by providing a legal instrument, the will, to distribute property to chosen recipients. When a man dies without having exercised this right, however, the laws of intestate succession determine who shall receive his property, and in what shares it shall be received. In effect, the laws of intestate succession are an estate plan written for the decedent by his state legislature. These laws do not function as a restriction …
The Uniform Probate Code And The International Will, William F. Fratcher
The Uniform Probate Code And The International Will, William F. Fratcher
Michigan Law Review
Emily Graham left her assets in England when she married a French naval officer and went to France to live with him. After her husband died, Emily announced that she was returning to England for the rest of her life and bundled her children and baggage aboard a channel ferry. Before the ferry cleared French waters she became ill and was taken ashore at another French port. While waiting impatiently to recover sufficiently for a final return to England, Emily executed a will of her English assets in the form prescribed by English law, that is, in writing, signed by …
When Are Deeds Testamentary, Henry W. Ballantine
When Are Deeds Testamentary, Henry W. Ballantine
Michigan Law Review
It is no objection to a deed that it is used as a substitute for a will, to avoid the expense and delay of probate proceedings. The frequent litigation arising over such deeds, however, shows that this expedient is a* dangerous one unless the grantor uses great care to avoid certain snares and pitfalls which the law in its wisdom provides for the unwary. The grantor may attempt to accomplish his purpose either by express provisions embodied in the deed itself, or by external, collateral conditions, preserved by the delivery of the deed to a deposifory. This paper will consider …
Mutual Wills, Edwin C. Goddard
Mutual Wills, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
SO LATE as 1822 Sir John Nicholl is reported to have said in Hobson v. Blackburn, that a mutual, or conjoint will is an instrument "unknown to the testamentary law of this country; or, in other words, that it is upknown, as a will, to the law of this country at all. It may, for aught that I know, be valid as a compact." In Darlington v. "Pulteney, Lord MANSFIELD said, "there cannot be a joint will." Following these distinguished and learned judges, Jarman and Williams in their classical treatises accepted the statement of Sir John, and some early American …
An Inroad Upon Fiduciary Integrity, Edson R. Sunderland
An Inroad Upon Fiduciary Integrity, Edson R. Sunderland
Articles
It is a principle universally recognized throughout our system of law, that no person shall be permitted to occupy a position of trust and confidence who at the same time is clearly subject to influences hostile to a faithful performance of his trust. There is a rule as old as Christianity, and it has been incorporated into our law from the earliest times, that "no man shall serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other." Fiduciary relations can rest upon no foundation but …
The Cy-Pres Doctrine, Harry B. Hutchins
The Cy-Pres Doctrine, Harry B. Hutchins
Articles
The CY-Pres Doctrine.-The court of chancery of New Jersey in the recent case of Brow et al. v. Condit et al. (Sept. 30, 1905), 61 Atl. Rep. 1055, refused to apply this doctrine under the following circumstances: The will of one Susan M. Corson, bearing date July 7, 1897, disposed of her residuary estate "to the Hospital Fund for Sick Seamen at Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, care of Mr. John M. Wood, chaplain." It appears that neither at the time of the making of the will nor at any time thereafter was there a fund in existence at or …
Testamentary Promises To Pay, Nathan Abbott
Testamentary Promises To Pay, Nathan Abbott
Articles
The New York Law Journal for May 23, 1892, contains a suggestive editorial headed "A Will or Not a Will," in which the writer says "Interesting questions are constantly arising in the classification of instruments which, although expressing wishes or intentions to be carried out after death, are open to criticism on the score of testamentary execution." As is intimated by the writer, the difficulty of placing an instrument in either the class of contracts or wills is considerably diminished if the statutory provisions as to execution of wills are elaborate. Where holographic wills are allowed, or wills of personal …