Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Of Piketty And Perpetuities: Dynastic Wealth In The Twenty-First Century (And Beyond), Eric Kades

Boston College Law Review

For the first time since independence, in a nation founded in large part on the rejection of a fixed nobility determined by birth and perpetuated by inheritance, America is paving the way for the creation of dynastic family wealth. Abolition of the Rule Against Perpetuities in over half the states along with sharp reductions in, and likely elimination of, the federal estate tax mean that there soon will be no obstacles to creating large pools of dynastic wealth insuring lavish incomes to heirs for generations without end. The timing of these legal changes could hardly be worse. Marshaling innovative economic ...

Of Piketty And Perpetuities: Dynastic Wealth In The Twenty-First Century (And Beyond), Eric Kades

Faculty Publications

For the first time since independence, in a nation founded in large part on the rejection of a fixed nobility determined by birth and perpetuated by inheritance, America is paving the way for the creation of dynastic family wealth. Abolition of the Rule Against Perpetuities in over half the states along with sharp reductions in, and likely elimination of, the federal estate tax mean that there soon will be no obstacles to creating large pools of dynastic wealth insuring lavish incomes to heirs for generations without end. The timing of these legal changes could hardly be worse. Marshaling innovative economic ...

Hitting Rewind: The Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania In Trust Under Agreement Of Taylor Signals A Move Away From Modern Developments Of Trust Law By Requiring More Stringent Standards For Corporate Trustee Removal, Ryan J. Ahrens

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hb 121 - Property, Wills, Trusts, And Estates, Colt Burnett, Ben Dell'orto

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act amends several aspects of trust law, including updating the application of the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities in Georgia by extending the time within which a nonvested property interest or power of appointment must vest from 90 to 360 years. The Act also allows for modifications of a trust without judicial approval in some cases. Many passages are simplified, including the calculation of compensation for a trustee, which can now be modified through different procedures. Finally, the Act codifies the role of trust directors.

Sb 301 - Wills, Trusts, And Administration Of Estates, Morgan S. Ownbey, Paul M. Napolitano

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act creates the “Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act,” extends fiduciaries’ powers to include managing tangible property and digital assets, and provides conforming cross-references for a conservator.

Do You Tru$T Your Children: A Parent’S Final Dilemma, J. Sam Rodgers

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

Incentive trusts developed out of unique American inheritance laws and have become a regarded estate planning tool. Policy, observation, and research suggest that they are inadequate, although still uncritically used. A Hidden Bonus Trust is an improved solution that builds on the shortcomings of incentive trusts. Hidden Bonus Trusts quench parents’ desires to leave legacies and motivate troubled beneficiaries.

The Holy Grail? Designing And Teaching An Integrated Doctrine And Drafting Course, Claire C. Robinson May

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

I’ve long considered teaching doctrine and skills together in a single course to be the holy grail of legal education. If we could do so successfully, we might make significant strides in providing a legal education that better prepares our students to be practicing lawyers. In spring 2016, my colleague Professor April Cherry and I took the plunge and collaboratively offered a course titled Estates and Trusts: Doctrine and Drafting at our institution, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. This essay describes our experience and lessons learned pursuing the holy grail.

In Re Connell Living Trust, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 73 (Sep. 13, 2018) (En Banc), Pengxiang Tian

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that a no-contest clause in a trust does not foreclose a beneficiary’s interest if the beneficiary, acting as the trustee, breaches his or her fiduciary duty.

Community Property V. Contracts: A Domestic Conflict Of Law Being Waged By The Washington Wife, Eldon H. Reiley

Gonzaga Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equitable Relief For Erisa Benefit Plan Designation Mistakes, Raymond C. O'Brien

Catholic University Law Review

Since its enactment in 1974, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and related insurance and disability programs provided retirement security for employees and employers, amassing more than $9 trillion in protected assets. Congress preempted conflicting state laws so as to promote certainty of distribution and ease of administration, two hallmarks of ERISA-governed plans. Nonetheless, since 1974, American society embraced spousal equality, an increased number of marriages end in divorce, and wealth most often passes through nonprobate transfers such as insurance contracts and pension policy plans. To accommodate these societal and wealth changes, states enacted statutes to provide elective share ...

The Rise Of Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

The law that defines and regulates fiduciary relationships appears in many legal areas, such as family law, surrogate decision-making, international law, agency law, employment law, pension law, remedies rules, banking law, financial institutions' regulation, corporate law, charities law not for profit organizations law, and the law concerning medical services.

Fiduciary relationships, and the concepts on which they are grounded, appear not only in the law. They appear in other areas of knowledge: economics, psychology; moral norms and pluralism. Fiduciary law has a very long history. It was recognized in Roman law and the British common law and appeared decades ago ...

The New Family Freedom, Emily J. Stolzenberg

Boston College Law Review

In family law, “autonomy” has traditionally meant freedom from state interference in one’s intimate life. This Article describes an emergent, libertarian vision of autonomy as property rights that also demands freedom from other family members. This conception, “choice about obligations,” holds redistribution of resources between intimates to be illegitimate unless the richer party “chose” to take on financial obligations ex ante by ceremonially marrying or formally contracting. But as more people conduct their intimate lives outside these legal institutions, choice about obligations increasingly collides with another, more fundamental, family law principle: the imperative to “privatize dependency,” i.e., to ...

From Waqf, Ancestor Worship To The Rise Of The Global Trust: A History Of The Use Of The Trust As A Vehicle For Wealth Transfer In Singapore, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection School Of Law

This Article focuses on the migration of English trust law to Singapore and its past and present uses in relation to wealth transfer through the ages. In Singapore, trust law arrived together with the corpus of English law. Unlike criminal law, which was influenced by Indian codes promulgated by the English in British India, trust law was received into Singapore directly from England.

A Pro Debtor And Majority Approach To The "Automatic Stay" Provision Of The Bankruptcy Code—In Re Cowen Incorrectly Decided, Claudia A. Restrepo

Boston College Law Review

On February 27, 2017, in In re Cowen, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that only affirmative actions to either obtain possession or exercise control over property of the bankruptcy estate constitute violations of the automatic stay provision. In doing so, the court concluded that the passive retention of an asset that was acquired pre-petition was not a violation of the automatic stay, and that the creditor had no obligation to relinquish the asset to the bankruptcy estate. This Comment argues that the Tenth Circuit misinterpreted the automatic stay provision of the Bankruptcy Code, disregarding ...

Keep Suing All The Lawyers: Recent Developments In Claims Against Lawyers For Aiding & Abetting A Client’S Breach Of Fiduciary Duty, Katerina P. Lewinbuk

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Lawyers have increasingly become subject to liability under various legal theories, ranging from traditional legal malpractice or negligence liability claims to various third-party actions. Most recently, state and federal courts across the country have recognized attorney liability for aiding and abetting a client’s breach of fiduciary duty. This Article will address the current status of the cause of action for a lawyer’s aiding and abetting her client’s breach of fiduciary duty, explain the commonalities and distinguish nuances as outlined by particular states, examine recent decisions by federal courts that have recognized the cause of action, and culminate ...

The Limited Duties Of Lawyers To Protect The Funds And Property Of Nonclients, Vincent R. Johnson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Issues arise daily in law practice about the duties owed by lawyers to nonclients with respect to funds or property entrusted to them. In resolving those issues, care must be exercised when interpreting state versions of Model Rule 1.15, the American Bar Association’s pattern ethics rule on safekeeping of funds and property. Otherwise, a lawyer’s duties to third persons may too readily encroach on the performance of obligations owed to clients, as well as on the legitimate interests of lawyers themselves.

As numerous authorities have recognized, lawyers are obliged to protect the property interests of third persons ...

Borrowing In The Shadow Of Death: Another Look At Probate Lending, David Horton

William & Mary Law Review

“Fringe” lending has long been controversial. Three decades ago, demand for subprime credit soared, and businesses started to offer high-interest rate cash advances, such as tax refund anticipation loans, payday loans, and pension loans. These products have sparked intense debate and are subject to a maze of rules.

However, in Probate Lending, published in the Yale Law Journal, a coauthor and I examined a form of fringe lending that has gone largely unnoticed: firms that pay lump sums in return for an heir or beneficiary’s interest in a pending decedent’s estate. Capitalizing on a California law that requires ...

A Social Welfare Theory Of Inheritance Regulation, Mark Glover

Utah Law Review

The law of succession grants donors broad freedom to decide how to distribute their property upon death. It does so in hopes of increasing social welfare in two general ways. First, freedom of disposition generates socially beneficial estate planning decisions. In particular, donors are in the best position to evaluate their own specific circumstances and to make decisions that, on the whole, produce the greatest utility from the transfer of their estates. Second, the donor’s autonomy over estate planning decisions incentivizes socially beneficial behavior, such as productivity during the life of the donor. Because the law views freedom of ...

Navajo Nation V. Department Of The Interior, Jaclyn R. Van Natta

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Navajo Nation v. Department of the Interior, the Navajo Nation challenged the Department of the Interior’s 2001 and 2008 water allocation guidelines and asserted that under NEPA and the APA the guidelines violated the Navajo Nation’s water rights. The Navajo Nation also asserted a breach of trust claim against the United States. After nearly a decade of attempted settlement negotiations, the Navajo Nation reasserted its complaints. The District Court for the District of Arizona denied the Navajo Nation’s motions, and the Navajo Nation appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which determined the Navajo Nation ...

Using Empirical Studies As A Basis For Updating Intestacy Laws, Sergio Pareja

Sergio Pareja

The principal goal of any intestacy statute is to determine the probable intent of individuals who die without a will. Professor Wright and Ms. Sterner analyze 493 wills that were probated in Escambia and Alachua Counties, Florida, in 2013. This blog post reviews their study as well as Wright and Sterner's final analysis. Pareja adds, new statutes, if properly considered, should pay attention to gender, race, and class differences that surfaced in the authors’ study