Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Trust Law And The Tides Of Colonialism, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Tethered to and inextricably linked with the absence or decline of democratic governance, there has always been empire. Empires rise and fall, as they say, but the imperial impulse is perennial and new iterations of old empires emerge with dismal regularity, showing us that imperial formations are hard to erase...

Property Problems In The New Non-Marriage: Inheritance, Eliot Tracz

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Marriage equality has been a hotly contested topic for many years, in both the court of public opinion and in courts of law. Major Supreme Court cases have found that marriage is a fundamental right, yet issues such as marriage outside of one’s race or to a person of the same gender have still been topics of litigation. At times, the very definition of marriage has been at issue, but throughout all of this litigation, courts have consistently defined marriage as a relationship between two people.

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Probate Standing, David Horton

Michigan Law Review

Few topics in civil justice have sparked as much criticism as the standing doctrine. The U.S. Constitution and some of its state counterparts require plaintiffs to allege that they suffered an “injury-in-fact” that the defendant caused and that a court can redress. A veritable ocean of commentary argues that this requirement [is confusing, ahistorical, and unmoored from its objectives.

Yet a different manifestation of the standing doctrine has long lurked in obscurity. Standing issues are also common in state probate courts, where the transmission of assets from the dead to the living can affect a variety of parties. But in …

Maine's Living Will Act And The Termination Of Life-Sustaining Medical Procedures, Eric R. Herlan

Maine Law Review

The Maine Legislature recently enacted a law authorizing the execution and use of living wills. The execution of a living will, essentially a document of "informed consent," allows a person to preserve in a legally recognized form his desire that, once he has been diagnosed to have a terminal medical condition and is no longer competent to make treatment decisions, the doctor should discontinue all life-sustaining procedures. With the passage of this act, Maine has joined thirty-four other states and the District of Columbia in enacting living will provisions. In addition, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws …

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

Mercer Law Review

This Article discusses significant cases decided by the Georgia appellate courts during the period of June 1, 2023, through May 31, 2024, and significant Georgia legislation enacted in that same period that relate to Georgia probate and trust law, guardianship, and estate planning. The cases discussed fall under three categories: wills and the administration of decedents’ estates (including cases relating to testamentary capacity, inheritance by children born out of wedlock, undue influence, and the disposition of a decedent’s remains); trusts and trustees (specifically a trustee’s entitlement to have attorney fees paid from the trust when defending against charges of maladministration …

Outlier On Lgbtq Rights: Japanese Ban On Same-Sex Marriage And Its Contradiction In The Age Of Globalization, Yumi Higashi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Japan is the only Group of Seven country yet to recognize same-sex marriage. Despite strong public support for marriage equality, the conservative dominance of the Japanese legislature and the Japanese courts’ deferential approach have stalled the change. This Note will analyze the legal issues and implications of Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage and Japan’s worldwide inheritance tax regime, with an emphasis on cross-border succession and estate planning. Specifically, the Note argues that the United States, as the only country with which Japan has a treaty in estate, inheritance, and gift tax, should renegotiate the treaty as it could have …

Trust And Estates Attorney Panel And Networking Reception, Trusts And Estates Law Society (Tels), Cori A. Robinson, Daniel B. Axman, Mindy H. Stern, Saverio (Sam) Cereste, Stewart E. Sterk

2024–2025 Flyers

The event took place on November 12 at 6:00 PM in Room 1008 and featured a panel of attorneys discussing their career paths and developments in the field. Panelists included Cori A. Robinson, Daniel B. Axman, Mindy H. Stern, and Saverio (Sam) Cereste. The discussion was moderated by Professor Stewart Sterk of Cardozo School of Law.

Looking Through Trusts, Adam S. Hofri, Mark Bennett

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

As everyone knows, trusts are often used to avoid or subvert different rules of law. To combat such avoidance, jurisdictions enacted anti-avoidance rules; yet many of these rules do not fully prevent trusts-based avoidance, or in some cases reflect some jurisdictions’ acceptance of such avoidance. We review the anti-avoidance rules applied by Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand to try and stymie trusts-based avoidance in three subject areas: distribution of family property on divorce or separation, taxation of income accrued in settlor-controlled trusts, and means-tested eligibility for welfare benefits. We find that anti-avoidance doctrines are often less …

Cy Pres Silliness: Remedies That Do Not Remediate The Harm, Phil Pillari

Northwestern University Law Review

Class actions play an important role in civil litigation, but they suffer from a serious problem. No matter how many plaintiffs are in the class, the individual claims are often miniscule, which can make distributing the inevitable settlement futile. Very few people make a claim, and it often costs more to mail the check than the check is worth. To solve this problem, Steven Shepherd proposed importing the cy pres doctrine (a trusts and estates device that allows courts to rewrite an unenforceable trust) into the class actions context. Shepherd’s framework instructs courts to devise the next best alternative for …

Hidden Until The End: The Need To Inform Medicaid Enrollees Of Estate Recovery Costs Before Their Death, Ashley Bassel Griffith

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the Medicaid estate recovery program and argues that its current notice framework fails to provide meaningful disclosure to Medicaid enrollees regarding the financial consequences of long-term services and supports (LTSS) coverage. Although Medicaid insures approximately one in five individuals in the United States, it uniquely requires certain beneficiaries—primarily individuals age fifty-five or older receiving LTSS—to repay covered costs from their estates after death. Federal law mandates recovery but does not require states to inform applicants or enrollees of anticipated or accrued estate recovery costs during their lifetimes. As a result, families frequently receive notice of substantial recovery …

In Re Estate Of Crossguns, 24-Ap-03 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Sept 23, 2024), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Court Decisions

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals, the Court affirmed a trial court order finding the appointment of decedent’s son as personal representative of decedent’s estate after appellant claimed Tribal Court erred when it proceeded with a hearing to determine the heirs of Decedent’s estate for lack of jurisdiction. Issues of Tribal Court jurisdiction and the validity of a decedent’s will are questions of law and will be reviewed de novo. The Blackfeet Tribal Law and Order Code, Ch. 3, Sec. 4 provides that the Blackfeet Tribal Cour has civil subject matter jurisdiction over probate proceedings.

Testamentary Freedom: A Constitutional Perspective, Richard J. Goralewicz

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Civilization Depends On Us: The Virtues Of Estate Planning And Estate Planners, Turney P. Berry

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Limitations On The Enforcement Of Foreign Forced Heirship Laws, Raquel Begleiter, Austin Bramwell, Molly Schiff

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.