Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Civil Rights Catch-22s, Jonathan P. Feingold

Cardozo Law Review

Civil rights advocates have long viewed litigation as a vital path to social change. In many ways, it is. But in key respects that remain underexplored in legal scholarship, even successful litigation can hinder remedial projects. This perverse effect stems from civil rights doctrines that incentivize litigants (or their attorneys) to foreground community plight—such as academic underachievement or overincarceration. Rational plaintiffs, responding in kind, deploy legal narratives that tend to track racial stereotypes and regressive theories of inequality. When this occurs, even successful lawsuits can harden the structural and behavioral forces that produce and perpetuate racial inequality.

I refer to …

Intellectual Heirs Property: Why Certain Musical Copyrights Should Be Included In The Heirs Property Reform Movement, Austin Weatherly

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The modern heirs property reform movement seeks to ameliorate the issues caused by the procedures governing the inheritance of real property from landowners who die intestate. This procedure can have a negative impact on heirs and the value of their inherited property. The reform movement, as it stands, only seeks to resolve the issues created by these procedures in the real property context. The rhetorical basis for the modern heirs property reform movement largely focuses on closing the racial wealth gap in the United States and slowing the wealth bleed from one black generation to the next. Many of the …

The Future Of Testamentary Capacity, Reid Kress Weisbord, David Horton

Washington and Lee Law Review

Recently, the #FreeBritney saga cast a harsh spotlight on state guardianship systems. Yet despite their serious flaws, guardianship regimes have benefited from waves of reform. Indeed, since the 1970s, most jurisdictions have taken steps to protect the autonomy of people with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities (CIDD). Likewise, lawmakers are currently experimenting with supported decision-making (SDM): an alternative to guardianship designed to help individuals with CIDD make their own choices. These changes are no panacea, but they have modernized a field that once summarily denied “idiots” and “lunatics” power over their affairs.

However, in a related context, the legal system’s …

Tax Crushing Trusts, Thomas Simmons

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

How Should Inheritance Law Remediate Inequality?, Felix B. Chang

Washington Law Review

This Article argues that trusts and estates (“T&E”) should prioritize intergenerational economic mobility—the ability of children to move beyond the economic stations of their parents—above all other goals. The field’s traditional emphasis on testamentary freedom, or the freedom to distribute property in a will as one sees fit, fosters the stickiness of inequality. For wealthy settlors, dynasty trusts sequester assets from the nation’s system of taxation and stream of commerce. For low-income decedents, intestacy (i.e., the system of property distribution for a person who dies without a will) splinters property rights and inhibits their transfer, especially to nontraditional heirs.

Holistically, …

A Trap For The Unwary: Enforcing Writs Of Seizure And Sale Against Joint Tenancies, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Joint tenancies are a common method of holding properties in Singapore, and yet, the issue in relation to enforcing writs of seizure and sale against a judgment debtor who owns a property on a joint tenancy with another is fraught with great legal and procedural uncertainty. This paper seeks to cut through the thicket of confusion by unpacking the various legal and procedural difficulties surrounding enforcing a judgment via a writ of seizure and sale against a judgment debtor who owns property as a joint tenant with another. Specifically, this article seeks to offer solutions to the practical difficulties of …

Federally Mandated Online Sales Tax: A Logistical Solution For The Future Of E-Commerce, Daniel O'Connor

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Economic Structural Transformation And Litigation: Evidence From Chinese Provinces, To Economic Change And Restructuring, Doug Bujakowski, Joan Schmit

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The "Business Interruption" Insurance Coverage Conundrum: Covid-19 Presents A Challenge, Paul E. Traynor

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Misalighned Incentives In Markets: Envisioning Finance That Benefits All Of Society, Dr. Ryan Clements

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Most People, Most Of The Time (Reviewing Mary Louise Fellows & E. Gary Spitko, How Should Non-Probate Transfers Matter In Intestacy?, 53 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 2207 (2020)), Katheleen Guzman

Other Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Monsanto: Creator Of Cancer Liability

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Corporate Response To Controversial Presidential Statements Or Policies

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Worshiping At The Feet Of Wealth: Self-Settled Asset Protection Trusts And Their Public Policy Implications, Kelsey Massey

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

The primary concern of this note is summarizing the public policy concerns concerning Domestic Self-Settled Asset Protection Trusts (DAPT) debated by scholars in a concise way and critiquing them. Secondly, this note seeks to compile various alternative structures suggested by scholars. Part I will explain the basic nature of spendthrift trusts and explain the history leading to the current DAPT structure. Part II will briefly explore the differences between Offshore Self-Settled Asset Protection Trusts (OAPTs) and DAPTs. Part III provides an overview of the relevant policy arguments for and against DAPT statutes and an analysis of their relative persuasiveness. Part …

How Should Inheritance Law Remediate Inequality?, Felix B. Chang

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Essay argues that trusts and estates (“T&E”) should prioritize intergenerational economic mobility—the ability of children to move beyond the economic station of their parents—above all other goals. The field’s traditional emphasis on testamentary freedom fosters the stickiness of inequality. For wealthy settlors, dynasty trusts sequester assets from the nation’s system of taxation and stream of commerce. For low-income decedents, intestacy splinters property rights and inhibits their transfer, especially to nontraditional heirs.

Holistically, this Essay argues that T&E should promote mean regression of the wealth distribution curve over time. This can be accomplished by loosening spending in ultrawealthy households and …

A New Feudalism: Selfish Genes, Great Wealth, And The Rise Of The Dynastic Family Trust (Dft), Eric Kades

Connecticut Law Review

Today’s record levels of economic inequality are infecting our future as the top 0.01% bequeath vast wealth to their descendants. With the death of the Rule Against Perpetuities (RAP), this inequality has the potential to harden social class lines—not just for a generation or two, but forever. Although it may sound implausible, interviews with estate lawyers serving very high-net-worth clients reveal that some members of the wealthiest tier of testators are already exploiting the RAP’s elimination, along with a tax loophole, to establish dynasty trusts that will financially empower their bloodline as long as it continues. Recent work in evolutionary …

Post-Pandemic Estate Planning: Analyzing The Recent Changes In Remote Notarization Laws, Matthew Fiedler

Seattle University Law Review

This Note explores estate planning in the post-pandemic landscape. Part I of this Note discusses how the resistance to remote technology in estate planning is rooted in traditional notions of formalism. Part II introduces a discussion regarding the use of remote technology, including its benefits and drawbacks. Part III articulates the current legal requirements to validly notarize signatures on various estate planning documents in Washington state. This part also discusses the extent of electronic or remote notarization allowed in the wake of emergency orders issued by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee in response to the spread of COVID-19. Additionally, Part …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Butler V. Gavek, 245 A.3d 750 (R.I. 2021), David Braga

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Beneficiaries Predecease: An Empirical Analysis, Adam J. Hirsch

Emory Law Journal

Under current law, bequests to beneficiaries who predecease the testator “lapse” to the beneficiary of the residuary, unless they are preserved for the descendants of predeceased beneficiaries under an “antilapse” statute. The beneficiaries covered by antilapse statutes vary from state to state, but in most states today the statutes apply only to blood relatives of the testator as distant as first cousins. This Article examines the public policy of antilapse statutes, assessing them by undertaking the first-ever survey of popular preferences concerning the matter. Harvesting evidence for five types of beneficiaries, the study finds that the prevailing structure of antilapse …

Legacies Of A Pandemic: Remote Attestation And Electronic Wills, Richard F. Storrow

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Restricting Funeral Expense Deductions, William A. Drennan

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

During the Middle Ages, the wealthy often requested burial in mass graves with their fellow mortals, as a sign of humility. But since the rise of the cult of the individual during the Renaissance, individual burial plots have been an expression of prestige, wealth, and social status for some. For example, Leona Helmsley, real estate baroness and “Queen of Mean,” dedicated $3 million upon her death for the care and maintenance of her 1300 square foot, $1.4 million mausoleum. Respectful disposition of the body is a hallmark of civilization and a common law requirement of estate administration, but an extravagant …

The Future Of Electronic Wills In Rhode Island After Covid-19, Crystal L. Collins.

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

2021 Surveys Of Rhode Island Law

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Disgorgement And Punitive Damages In Trust Law, Daniel B. Kelly

Journal Articles

Private and charitable trusts hold trillions of dollars in assets. Trustees manage, invest, and distribute these assets, subject to fiduciary duties, including the duty of loyalty and prudence. But the remedies for fiduciary breach, and their justifications, are convoluted. The conventional view, especially in law and economics, is to characterize most fiduciary relationships, including trusts, as contractual and most fiduciary duties as implicit contract terms. One might suppose, then, that the optimal remedy for fiduciary breach would be the same as the usual remedy for contractual breach: damages. But the traditional equitable remedies in fiduciary law, and modern remedies in …

Fringe Inheriting: Probate Avoidance At Both Ends Of The Wealth Spectrum, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

The principal system in the United States for transferring wealth from one generation to the next - the probate system - is a historically and steadfastly public one. Probate is a set of public processes and a court system created to situate and facilitate wealth transfer, giving legal imprimatur to the distribution of family money. Nevertheless, while the probate system may be the central and most conventional system for transferring wealth, not all families and individuals avail themselves of the system. The broad swath of families who avail themselves of the services and certain benefits of the probate system are, …

Prepaid Death, Victoria J. Haneman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Kumble V. Voccola, 253 A.3d 1248 (R.I. 2021), Aryamen Andrew Omshehe

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wills & Trusts, Gerry W. Beyer

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Disinheritance, Discrimination, And The Case For Including Adult Independent Children In Dependants’ Relief Schemes: Lawen Estate V Nova Scotia, Jane Thomson

Dalhousie Law Journal

In 2019 a Superior Court in Nova Scotia excluded adult independent children as “Dependants” under Nova Scotia’s Testator’s Family Maintenance Act. The decision was based on a finding that testamentary autonomy is a constitutional right protected by s. 7 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This article explains why the constitutional decision in Lawen Estate v Nova Scotia was incorrect. It also demonstrates why the inclusion of adult independent children in dependants’ relief schemes is not only benign in most instances, but may play a role in preventing the perpetuation of discrimination in the private law. This article also …