Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Biologically Biased Beneficence, Jeffrey E. Stake

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Irwin V. Gavit: Income Is (Sometimes) In The Eye Of The Beholder, William P. Lapiana

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

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

Mercer Law Review

This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015 pertaining to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.

Doe V. Friedman, Neal Hendel, Anat Baron, Uri Shoham

Translated Opinions

[This abstract is not part of the Court's opinion and is provided for the reader's convenience. It has been translated from a Hebrew version prepared by Nevo Press Ltd. and is used with its kind permission.]

A transgender woman ended her life, and, in documents she left behind, she made clear that she wished for her body to be cremated and that most of her ashes be scattered at sea and some be buried in a place for her memory. In her will she asked that the First Respondent act to execute her wishes – this, among others, because she …

Forfeiting Trust, Deborah S. Gordon

William & Mary Law Review

Over the past two years, a significant number of appellate courts in jurisdictions throughout the country have faced trust provisions that purport to disinherit any beneficiaries who challenge a trustee’s decision making. Such provisions to “secure compliance ... with dispositions of property”—known as “forfeiture,” “no-contest,” “anticontest,” or “penalty” clauses—have appeared in wills for well more than a century. But the trust clauses differ from their testamentary counterparts and thus deserve serious scrutiny in their own right, especially because the abundance of recent cases has led to increasingly inconsistent and haphazard approaches. This Article exposes the problems that trust forfeiture clauses …

Fiduciary Governance, Paul B. Miller, Andrew S. Gold

William & Mary Law Review

The fiduciary relationship is one of the most fundamental legal relationships, and its importance for both public and private law is increasingly recognized. Fiduciary mandates typically involve one person—the fiduciary—administering the affairs or property of other persons—an individual beneficiary or group of beneficiaries. Yet, as we will demonstrate, this is not the only way fiduciary relationships are structured. Most accounts of fiduciary law oversimplify the law because they exclude a categorically different form of fiduciary relationship. A significant set of fiduciary relationships feature governance mandates in which the fiduciary is charged with pursuing abstract purposes rather than the interests of …

Crummey Delivers Another Knockout Punch To The Irs, Phyllis C. Taite

Other Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Special Family And Lifestyle Tax Issues, Helena S. Mock

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Aligning The Stars -- Estate Planning For Entrepreneurs In Interesting Times, Stefan F. Tucker, Mary Ann Mancini, Tammara Langlieb

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

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

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Property Law—Upending The Familiar Tools Of Estate Planning: Equity Renders Revocable Trusts Subject To The Arkansas Spousal Election. In Re Estate Of Thompson, 2014 Ark. 237, 434 S.W.3d 877., Lucy L. Holifield

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Inheritance Equity: Reforming The Inheritance Penalties Facing Children In Non-Traditional Families, Danaya C. Wright

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines how more than 50% of children living today may be disadvantaged by 1950s era inheritance laws that privilege and protect only those children living in nuclear families with their biological parents. Because so many children today are living in blended families — single-parent families, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ) families, or are living with relatives — their right to inherit from the persons who function as their parents are severely limited by most state probate codes, even though they would likely be entitled to child support under the parent-child definitions of most of those states' …

The Family Llc: A New Approach To Insuring Dynastic Wealth, Evan Michael Purcell

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This Article introduces the taxpayer to the basic background principles needed to understand the inner workings of the investment, then provides a guide to drafting considerations for the family's attorney, and concludes with a general plan to maintain business legitimacy and take advantage of tax-favored status, while retaining the flexibility essential to combating the unexpected. Part II addresses the historically favored tax treatment of life insurance products, as well as relatively recent restrictive reforms. Part III addresses the background foundation of the LLC entity and surveys its skeletal structure. Part IV introduces a practical example of how to create an …

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Planned Parenthood: Adult Adoption And The Right Of Adoptees To Inherit, Richard C. Ausness

ACTEC Law Journal

This Article is concerned with the effect of adult adoptions on the inheritance rights (in the broad sense of that term) of adult adoptees. The Article contends many adult adoption statutes assume the existence of a parent-child relationship in which the adopter is the "parent" and the adoptee is a "child" even though this is not true of all adult adoption cases. In addition, legislatures and courts frequently fail to differentiate between "quasi-familial" adoptions and "strategic" adoptions, particularly where inheritance rights are concerned.

The Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax And Sociological Shifts In Generational Length: Proposing A Generation-Inflation Index For Taxation, Alyssa A. Dirusso

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Medicaid Planning For Long-Term Care: California Style, John A. Miller, Vanessa S. Stroud

ACTEC Law Journal

California's Medicaid program, "Medi-Cal", differs significantly from programs in other states. This article sets out the major distinctions between California's program and other state programs as applied to long term care for disabled seniors. It illustrates the major planning techniques that are employed throughout the country and also those techniques that are available only in California.

Medicaid is the means tested, cooperative state and federal program that pays for much of the nursing home and other long term care in the United States. California's uneven implementation of federal legislation regulating Medicaid over the last several decades has created many challenges …

Elaine Hightower Gagliardi On Proving Estate And Gift Tax Value: Evolving Lessons From Recent Cases, Elaine H. Gagliardi

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

The term, “fair market value,” proves one of the most litigated in the Federal estate and gift tax code. Value lies in the eyes of the appraiser, often resulting in wide disparities between the Service’s and taxpayer’s appraised values.2 The underlying assumptions, and at times the legal principles, on which an appraisal rests can vary greatly based on the particular asset and the appraisal method. The Tax Court claims wide latitude in deciding an asset’s value, reserving the right to draw from each appraisal submitted as it deems appropriate to arrive at ultimate value based on a preponderance of the …

The Reed Case: The Seed For Equal Protection From Sex-Based Discrimination, Or Polite Judicial Hedging?, John P. Murphy Jr.

Akron Law Review

Reed is yet another example of how the Equal Protection Clause may be used to strike down state statutes which embody arbitrary classifications that are neither fairly nor substantially related to the object of the statute, and which bring about the invidious discrimination that is repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. It must stressed that the outcome of Reed is clearly commendable in terms of justice. What is troublesome is the fact that one may contend that the Supreme Court hedged, perhaps avoided, an excellent opportunity in which to expand the constitutional scope of the Equal Protection Clause. Reed afforded the …

The Uniform Probate Code And The Practice Of Law In Ohio, Robert M. Brucken

Akron Law Review

The author, an active probate lawyer, believes much of an attorney's time is wasted in present probate practice. Too much time is spent in attempting to cut the red-tape requirements of "make-work" probate procedures that serve no purpose in all but a very few cases. Therefore, it is worthwhile to call to the attention of the practicing bar the need for probate reform, and the attractive vehicle for reform which is now available.

This vehicle, the Uniform Probate Code, was prepared as a sevenyear project of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, with the assistance of the …