Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Clear And Convincing Evidence Of Testamentary Intent: The Search For A Compromise Between Formality And Adjudicative Justice, Emily Sherwin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Trusts: Monkeying Around With Our Pets' Futures: Why Oklahoma Should Adopt A Pet-Trust Statute, Christine Cave

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Uniform Probate Code Extends Antilapse-Type Protection To Poorly Drafted Trusts, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

The Uniform Law Commission' promulgated a revised version of Article II of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC or Code) in 1990, and approved a set of technical amendments in 1993. As Director of Research and Chief Reporter for the Joint Editorial Board for the Uniform Probate Code (Board)2 and reporter for the UPC Article II drafting committee, I was privileged to serve as the principal drafter of these provisions. UPC Article II deals with the substantive rules governing donative transfers - intestacy; spouse's elective share; execution, revocation, and revival of wills; rules of construction for wills and other donative transfers; …

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

University of Richmond Law Review

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 …

The Authority, Powers, And Duties And Compensation Of The Personal Representative (Adminstrator & Executor): A Comparison Of The Uniform Probate Code And The Georgia Probate Court In This And Procedural Matters, Udo W. Herberth

LLM Theses and Essays

This LL.M. thesis provides a comparative analysis of the authority, powers, duties, and compensation of the personal representative under two distinct American probate systems: the Uniform Probate Code and the Georgia Probate Code. The work traces the historical development of probate law from the English ecclesiastical courts through the Model Probate Code and the adoption of the UPC in 1969, and situates the Georgia Code within its tradition of court-supervised administration dating to the Act of 1784. Key topics include the procedural innovations of the UPC, including informal probate, summary procedures for small estates, and supervised administration, versus Georgia's more …

Reforming The Requirements For Due Execution Of Wills: Some Guidance From The Past, Lloyd Bonfield

Articles & Chapters

The recent revision of the Uniform Probate Code (1990) accepted the "dispensing power" with respect to will execution, revocation, revival, and alteration. Under section 2-503, a will that has not been executed in conformity with the formalities of will execution should nevertheless be admitted to probate if the probate court finds "by clear and convincing evidence" that the decedent intended the document to stand as a will This Article reviews the literature supporting the change in wills acts and examines cases that have considered applying remedies for defectively executed wills. It is argued by the proponents of the dispensing power …

The Uniform Probate Code Upends The Law Of Remainders, Jesse Dukeminier

Michigan Law Review

Nothing is more settled in the law of remainders than that an indefeasibly vested remainder is transmissible to the remainderman's heirs or devisees upon the remainderman's death. Thus, where a grantor conveys property "to A for life, then to B and her heirs," B's remainder passes to B's heirs or devisees if B dies during the life of A. Inheritability of vested remainders was recognized in the time of Edward I, and devisability was recognized with the Statute of Wills in 1540.

The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

In 1989 and 1990, Articles II and VI of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) were revised by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). Article II covers the basic law of intestacy, wills, spousal rights, rules of construction, and perpetuities. Article VI deals with multiple-party accounts and transfer-on-death (TOD) security registration. The major innovations in the revised UPC are driven by changes in legal theory. Three grand themes are at work in the new UPC: 1. improving spousal rights and sensitizing them to changes in family structure, 2. curing intent-defeating formalism, and 3. unifying the law of …

Tribute To William F. Fratcher: Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

"Marital property rights," a term that covers a vast multitude of rights or interests conferred by law on persons who occupy the status of spouse, are in a state of transition. To discuss the themes and trends that are emerging, this Article is divided into four discrete, yet related segments. The first segment addresses how the law allocates original ownership between spouses in a marriage. The second segment turns to the intestate share of the surviving spouse. This is not a topic that much concerns high-powered estate planners because intestate estates are usually fairly small. But to the surviving spouse, …

Will Substitutes Under The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

UF Law Faculty Publications

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in probate avoidance. Revocable trusts, joint-and-survivor or pay-on-death (“POD”) bank accounts, transfer-on-death (“TOD”) security registrations and other will substitutes have proliferated and emerged as successful competitors of the probate system. In response to this “nonprobate revolution,” the drafters of the Uniform Probate Code (“UPC”) have begun to reconsider the scope and direction of probate reform. The 1989 and 1990 UPC revisions reflect a new emphasis on integrating the law of probate and nonprobate transfers.

Nevertheless, the nonprobate revolution remains incomplete. Although the revised UPC establishes uniform constructional rules for wills and will substitutes, …

The Upc And The New Durable Powers, David M. English

Faculty Publications

This article thoroughly explores the escalation of interest in durable powers of attorney, with particular emphasis on health care powers and advance directives. The author focuses on durable power legislation influenced by the Unifomi Probate Code and health care power and advance directive statutes enacted in response to recent decisions dealing with the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.

An Eclectic History And Analysis Of The 1990 Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence H. Averill

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ademption And The Domain Of Formality In Wills Law, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The 1990 revision of the Uniform Probate Code ("UPC") marks the second stage of probate reform in the second half of this century. The first stage was the adoption of the original UPC. While it included some changes in the substantive law of wills, its primary objective was to simplify probate procedure. The second stage, by contrast, focuses almost entirely on the substantive law of wills and will substitutes. It changes several of the primary rules of wills law, including the traditional rule requiring strict compliance with execution formalities. It also makes significant changes in the subsidiary rules of wills …

Spousal Rights In Our Multiple-Marriage Society: The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

The transformation of the American family constitutes one of the great phenomenons of the past two decades. The traditional Leave It to Beaver family no longer prevails in American society. To be sure, families consisting of the wage-earning husband, the homemaking and child-rearing wife, and their two joint children still exist. But divorce rates are astonishingly high and remarriage abounds. In fact, there is an increasing prevalence in the population of marriages that are more likely to end in divorce than others-marriages in which one or both partners were divorced before and marriages of couples who cohabited prior to marriage.

The Upc's New Survivorship And Antilapse Provisions, Edward C. Halbach Jr., Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

Law governing transfers of family property has long struggled with questions of survivorship in their many and varied forms. Important results can and regularly do turn on how such issues are resolved.

Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

The subject of "marital property rights" is very timely because those rights are in a state of transition. The term "marital property rights" covers a vast multitude of rights or interests conferred by law on persons who occupy the status of spouse. This lecture is divided into four discrete, yet related segments. The first segment addresses how the law allocates original ownership between spouses in a marriage. The second segment turns to the intestate share of the surviving spouse. This is not a topic that high-powered estate planners get involved in very much because intestate estates are usually fairly small. …

Reforming The Law Of Gratuitous Transfers: The New Uniform Probate Code, John H. Langbein, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

In the mid-1980s the Uniform Law Commission undertook a landmark revision of the American law of gratuitous transfers. These reforms culminated in a drastically revised Uniform Probate Code ("UPC"). The revisions inspired the Albany Law Review to organize this symposium issue for the purpose of examining the 1990 UPC. In this introductory paper, we point to the main themes of the reform movement, discuss some of the traits and constraints of the uniform law process, and comment on some of the suggestions and insights that appear in the symposium articles.

Multijurisdictional Estates And Article Ii Of The Uniform Probate Code, Jeffrey Schoenblum

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The prefatory note to the 1990 revisions of article II of the Uniform Probate Code ("UPC") indicates that the changes wrought are a response to several developments since the promulgation of the UPC in 1969. The prefatory note emphasizes the decline of formalism, the proliferation of will substitutes, the multiple-marriage society, and the rise of the partnership/marital sharing theory as stimulative of the revisions introduced. The theme of this article is that one other crucial development has been essentially ignored. No serious attempt has yet been made by the drafters to address the immensely complex yet commonplace issues associated with, …

The Multiple-Marriage Society And Spousal Rights Under The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

Nearly everyone knows about the transformation of the American family that has taken place over the last couple of decades. The changes, from the latter half of the 1970s into the present, comprise one of the great events of our age. Articles on one aspect or another of the phenomenon frequent the popular press, and a special edition of Newsweek was recently devoted to the topic.' The traditional "Leave It To Beaver" family no longer prevails in American society. To be sure, families consisting of a wage-earning husband, a homemaking and child-rearing wife, and their two joint children still exist. …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

The 1991 session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia ("Code"). In addition to this legislation, there were six cases from the Supreme Court of Virginia and one from the Virginia Court of Appeals, in the year ending June 1, 1991, which involve issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Transfers Prior To Marriage And The Uniform Probate Code's Redesigned Elective Share - Why The Partnership Is Not Yet Complete, Rena C. Seplowitz

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Spousal Probate Rights In A Multiple-Marriage Society, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Other Publications

Nearly everyone knows about the transformation of the American family that has taken place over the last couple of decades. The changes comprise one of the great events of our age-from the latter half of the 1970's into the present. Articles on one aspect or another of the phenomenon frequent the popular press, and a special edition of Newsweek was recently devoted to the topic. The traditional "Leave It To Beaver" family no longer prevails in American marriage behavior. To be sure, the wage-earning husband, the homemaking and child-rearing wife, and their two joint children-this type of family still exists. …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Augmented Estate System: An Overview, J. William Gray Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

The New Year 1991 will bring in an entirely new system of property rights for surviving spouses in Virginia. As of the end of 1990, the centuries-old concepts of dower and curtesy will disappear from the Code of Virginia (the "Code"). The current will renunciation and spouse's election provisions of estate law also will be scrapped. House Bill No. 808 replaces those historic concepts with an "augmented estate" system modeled after the Uniform Probate Code (the "U.P.C."), but having several features unique to the Commonwealth. This article examines the mechanics of the new system, with particular emphasis on features that …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

The 1990 session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia (the "Code"). In addition to this legislation, there were fifteen cases from the Supreme Court of Virginia, in the year ending June 1, 1990, which involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Redesigning The Spouse's Forced Share, John H. Langbein, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

American forced-share law underwent a major round of reform in the 1960s. The main objective was to prevent the decedent from engaging in "fraud on the widow's share," that is, using nominal inter vivos transfers to evade the surviving spouse's forced-share entitlement. In jurisdictions that follow the Uniform Probate Code of 1969 (UPC), that mischief has been eradicated. The UPC, which is discussed in some detail below, extends the forced-share entitlement to property that has been the subject of inter vivos transfer. In the present article we develop the view that the time has come for a further round of …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

The 1986 session of the General Assembly passed eight bills dealing with wills, trusts, and estates. In addition to this legislation, there were four cases from the Virginia Supreme Court and one case from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during the past year that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article reviews all of these legislative and judicial developments. In order to facilitate the discussion of numerous Virginia Code sections they will be referred to in the text by their section numbers only. These section numbers will …

The Influence Of The Uniform Probate Code In Nonadopting States, Roger W. Andersen

Seattle University Law Review

In twenty-three states, legislative unwillingness to embrace the UPC as a whole has not precluded adoption of some of its provisions. As the first part of this Article indicates, the most common pattern is for a state to use the Code as a model to solve an isolated, but common, problem. Article II of the UPC, which covers intestacy and wills, is by far the most often copied article; the most often followed sections are those dealing with traditional troublespots, such as the effects of survival, adoption, and divorce. In contrast, among those UPC sections garnering the least attention are …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

The 1985 session of the General Assembly passed a number of bills dealing with wills, trusts, and estates, many of which resulted from the continuing law reform efforts of the Virginia Bar Association's Committee on Wills, Trusts and Estates. In addition to this legislation, the Virginia Supreme Court decided six cases during the past year that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills and trusts. This article reviews all of these legislative and judicial developments. In order to facilitate the discussion of numerous code sections, they will be referred to in the text …

Concealing Legislative Reform In The Common-Law Tradition: The Advancements Doctrine And The Uniform Probate Code, Mary L. Fellows

Vanderbilt Law Review

This essay first sets forth the doctrine of advancements and includes a discussion of its suitability for a study of statutory reform and the purpose and origin of the doctrine. The essay then demonstrates how a presumption against finding an advancement that can be rebutted only by a writing showing a contrary intent operates as a practical repeal of advancements. Next, the essay explores the rationales of the drafters of the Uniform Probate Code(UPC) in repealing the advancements doctrine by subterfuge and analyzes the costs of reform by subterfuge. Finally, the essay recommends an alternative approach to reforming the advancements …