Estates and Trusts Commons^™

The Madness Of Insane Delusions, Kevin Bennardo

Faculty Publications

This Article shares two ideas for reform of the law surrounding testators' expressed preferences and the doctrine of insane delusions.

First, the doctrine of insane delusions should not be applied to devises that seek to advance beliefs, ideas, or viewpoints. There is just too great of a risk that judges and juries will strike down such devises when the testator’s viewpoints diverge from their own.

Second, the time may have come to admit that the law of wills is not as committed to the principle of testamentary freedom as it is often espoused to be. The literature is rife with …

Who Will Judge The Many When The Game Is Through: Considering The Profound Differences Between Mental Health Courts And Traditional Involuntary Civil Commitment Courts, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This paper is an expansion of a presentation given by the author at the annual Therapeutic Jurisprudence Workshop at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 15, 2016. There is a developing robust literature about mental health courts (MHCrts) in the United States, and researchers have begun to focus on a broad range of empirical issues, such as the extent to which defendants are competent to waive their trial rights in such settings, the significance of diversion, etc. Also, advocates and other scholars have engaged in vigorous debates about the value of these courts, and the extent …

Income Tax Concerns With Purpose Trusts, Thomas Simmons

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

United States V. Osage Wind, Llc, Summer Carmack

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Osage Nation, as owner of the beneficial interest in its mineral estate, issues federally-approved leases to persons and entities who wish to conduct mineral development on its lands. After an energy-development company, Osage Wind, leased privately-owned surface lands within Tribal reservation boundaries and began to excavate minerals for purposes of constructing a wind farm, the United States brought suit on the Tribe’s behalf. In the ensuing litigation, the Osage Nation insisted that Osage Wind should have obtained a mineral lease from the Tribe before beginning its work. In its decision, the Tenth Circuit applied one of the Indian law …

Family Limited Partnerships And Section 2036: Not Such A Good Fit, Mitchell M. Gans, Jonathan G. Blattmachr

ACTEC Law Journal

The IRS has struggled to close down abusive family limited partnerships. At first unreceptive to IRS arguments, the courts eventually embraced section 2036 as an estate-tax tool for attacking such partnerships. Because the section was not designed to apply to partnerships, difficulties have arisen as the courts have struggled with the fit. In its most recent encounter, the Tax Court in Powell grappled with a fit-related issue that implicates the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Byrum. The Powell court, it will be argued, misread Byrum, conflating the majority opinion with the dissent – and converting the rule-based approach …

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Social Control Of Wealth In Antebellum New York, William P. Lapiana

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Democracy And Trusts, Carla Spivack

ACTEC Law Journal

Spendthrift trusts which shield assets from creditors have been an ongoing problem for the law since their advent in the nineteenth century. Other, very recent, forms of trust are an even bigger problem: they take the notion of asset protection much farther, allowing settlors to protect not only the beneficiary’s assets, but their own, from creditors; these are called “self-settled asset protection trusts". Moreover, more and more states allow so-called “dynasty trusts” which allow settlors and beneficiaries to maintain assets in trust tax free for generations, overturning long-settled principles of the common law such as the Rule Against Perpetuities. All …

Honoring Probable Intent In Intestacy: An Empirical Assessment Of The Default Rules And The Modern Family, Danaya C. Wright, Beth Sterner

ACTEC Law Journal

This article provides preliminary analysis of an empirical study of nearly 500 wills probated in Alachua and Escambia Counties in the State of Florida in 2013. The particular focus of the study is to determine if there are noticeable patterns of property distribution preferences among decedents based on their diverse family relationships. Earlier empirical studies of distribution preferences indicated that a majority of married decedents wanted to give all or most of their estates to their surviving spouses. As a result of these studies, most states amended their probate codes to give surviving spouses a sizable percentage of a decedent …

Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford

Mercer Law Review

This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.

Maximizing Ponzi Loss Deductions For Estate And Income Tax Purposes: Are Taxpayers Better Off Dead?, Valrie Chambers, Brian Elzweig

William & Mary Business Law Review

There is a long history of cases interpreting whether a theft loss deduction for securities fraud is allowable for personal income taxes. The cases require that for a theft loss to be actionable as such, it would have to meet the requirements of the common law definition of theft in the U.S. state in which it occurred. This generally requires direct privity between the person claiming the loss and the person who committed the theft. Because most securities transactions are brokered, the direct privity is lost and a theft loss deduction is denied in favor a capital loss. Recently, in …

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. William Gray Jr., Katherine E. Ramsey

University of Richmond Law Review

The Supreme Court of Virginia has handed down seven recent

decisions addressing the authority of an agent to change the principal's

estate plan, legal malpractice claims in estate planning,

rights of incapacitated adults, limits of the constructive trust doctrine,

effects of a reversionary clause in a deed, ownership of an

engagement ring, and proof of undue influence. The 2017 Virginia

General Assembly clarified rules on legal malpractice and tenancies

by the entireties, adopted the Uniform Trust Decanting Act

and the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, and expanded

provisions governing estate administration, life insurance,

and advance medical directives. Other …

Introducing Virtual Representation, Thomas Simmons

Faculty Publications

The general rule that a person cannot be bound by an agreement or decree unless she received notice encounters practical difficulties where a person is missing, incompetent, a minor, unascertained, or even unborn. All beneficiaries are necessary parties in a trust proceeding. But short of appointing a guardian ad litem to represent persons who are difficult to notice, uncertainty and inefficiencies would be encountered were it not for the doctrine of virtual representation. Under the doctrine of virtual representation, persons - even if not yet in existence - can be held to be parties to a proceeding or an agreement …

Raising The Dead: An Examination Of In Re Kingsbury And Maine's Law Regarding Intestate Succession And Posthumous Paternity Testing, Dylan R. Boyd

Maine Law Review

In 2001, Ben Erskine, a man who claimed to be the son of renowned guru Paramahansa Yogananda, planned to ask a Los Angeles judge to order that the guru's body be exhumed for DNA testing to determine Erskine's paternity. Erskine's allegations threatened both Yogananda's reputation and the fortune of his estate, which belonged to his organization the Self Realization Fellowship. In 2002, seven years after the allegations arose, conclusive tests comparing Erskine's DNA and that of Yogananda's surviving male relatives in India resolved the controversy and vindicated the guru, thus putting to rest the looming possibility of exhuming his body …

Fiduciary Obligations In Business And Investment: Implications Of Climate Change, Janis P. Sarra

All Faculty Publications

Fiduciary obligation, under both corporate law and the common law, requires directors and officers to identify and address climate-related financial and other risks. In fulfilling their obligations to act in the best interests of the company, directors and officers must directly engage with developments in knowledge regarding physical and transition risks related to climate change and how these risks may impact their corporation. Depending on the firm’s economic activities, the risk may be minor or highly significant, but directors and officers have an obligation to make the inquiries, to devise strategies to address risks, and to have an ongoing monitoring …

Please Don’T Make Me Pay Taxes: How New Irs Law Helps Art Collectors Avoid Hefty Taxes, Stephanie Dunn

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam Dennis Belcher: Lessons I Learned At The Feet Of The Master, Dana G. Fitzsimons Jr.

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Larger Than Life, Carol Harrington

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Remembering Dennis Belcher, W. Bjarne Johnson

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Dennis Belcher's Little Red Book: The Wit And Wisdom Of Dennis Belcher, Steve R. Akers

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.