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Estate Planning

Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog

A resource to enhance the teaching of courses that address intestate succession, wills, trusts, estate administration, non-probate assets, planning for disability, and other matters pertaining to estate planning.
By Gerry W. Beyer

Post Frequency: 44.9/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:00:00

Family Keeps Mother's Corpse in House for Months

Posted on December 25, 2009
A woman in Wilmington, North Carolina, has been charged with concealment of death, a low-level felony, for failing to report the death of her mother. The woman reportedly knew that her mother was dead but failed to report the death...

Possible Gift Taxation for Loaning Tangible Property?

Posted on December 24, 2009
Joseph M. Dodge (professor of law, Florida State University) recently posted on SSRN his article entitled Revisiting Dickman: Are Loans of Tangible Property Gifts?. An abstract of the article is below: Suppose a parent ?loans? her vacation home ?Dellview? in...

Disney Family Member Passes Away

Posted on December 24, 2009
Roy Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney, recently passed away at the age of 79. Roy Disney's father co-founded the Disney empire with Walt Disney. Roy worked with the Disney Company for 59 years, helping to guides successes like Aladdin...

Creating Your Family Through Surrogacy: Legal Shortcomings?

Posted on December 24, 2009
The New York Times featured a fascinating article on third-party reproduction, which occurs when more than two people work together to have a baby. The article provides the following facts regarding surrogacy: The majority of state statutes are silent on...

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Blog Reception at AALS Annual Meeting

Posted on December 23, 2009
Are you attending the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans? If so, I would like to invite you to an informal reception on Friday, January 8, 2010 immediately following the Gala Reception. I would enjoy visiting with my readers and...

Football Player Chris Henry's Untimely Death

Posted on December 23, 2009
Chris Henry, football player for the Cincinnati Bengals, recently died after he fell from the back of a moving pick-up truck while fighting with his fiancee. The football player reportedly experienced a number of problems, including arrests and NFL suspensions,...

Academy of Special Needs Planners' Fourth Annual Meeting

Posted on December 23, 2009
The fourth annual meeting of the Academy of Special Needs Planners will take place March 19-20 in Charleston, South Carolina. A description of the program, entitled Strengthening Our Roots and Extending Our Branches, is below:As the field of special needs...

Unjust Enrichment Claims Against the Estate

Posted on December 23, 2009
David Freedman (Queen's University) recently posted on SSRN his article entitled Unjust Enrichment Claims Against the Estate Based on the Provision of Services to the Deceased. The following is an abstract of the article: Unjust enrichment claims often feature in...

California: Spendthrift Clause May Not Protect Trustee Who is Also Trustee and Breaches Fiduciary Duty

Posted on December 23, 2009
In Chatard v. Oveross, 2009 Cal. Slip Op. B213392 (Ct. App.--4th Dist., 2nd Div. Nov. 30, 2009), the California Court of Appeals held that the share of a trustee-beneficiary who breached her fiduciary duty could be reached by the other...

Marshall and Morrissey Sentenced to One to Three Years

Posted on December 22, 2009
Anthony Marshall and Francis Morrissey were sentenced to one to three years in prison for defrauding Brooke Astor of millions of dollars. This was the minimum sentence possible. When asked if he had anything to say at the sentencing, Marshall...

A New Approach to Organ Donation

Posted on December 22, 2009
Organ donation depends, in large part, on timing: a person must be dead but the organs must still be alive. The criteria for declaring a patient "brain dead" is extremely strict and few brain injured people meet it. Irreversibly ceasing...

Texas Trust Law -- Cases and Materials (2nd edition) released

Posted on December 22, 2009
The second edition of Texas Trust Law -- Cases and Materials by Gerry W. Beyer (Governor Preston Smith Regents Professor of Law, Texas Tech University School of Law) has just been released. Here is a description of this book: This...

Anthony Marshall's Friends Petition the Court for Shortest Possible Prison Sentence

Posted on December 22, 2009
Anthony Marshall, convicted of grand larceny and fraud, could be sentenced to as little as one year and as much as 25 years in prison. The prosecution has portrayed Marshall as a criminal deserving of punishment. Close friends and celebrities,...

UK Taxes Banker Bonuses While Goldman Sachs Execs Completely Forego

Posted on December 21, 2009
The United Kingdom will impose a 50% tax on banker bonuses exceeding $40,000 this year. The tax will be imposed on the banks giving the bonus. France reportedly plans to follow suit. In the U.S., such a tax would be...

Divorce Now, or Divorce Later for $55 million?

Posted on December 21, 2009
Recent reports indicate that if Elin Nordegren were to divorce Tiger Woods, she would receive $20 million pursuant to a prenuptial agreement the couple signed; however, if she remains married to Woods for two more years, she could receive an...

Google Phone May Have Stolen Its Name

Posted on December 21, 2009
Rumor has it that a Google Phone is being tested. The phone has been called the Android Phone and also the Nexus One, a reference to cyborg characters in the movie Blade Runner, which is based on a book by...

The Driving Force Behind Legal Rules Affecting the Dead

Posted on December 21, 2009
Kristen Rabe Smolensky (associate professor of law, University of Arizona) has published her article entitled Rights of the Dead, 37 Hoffstra L. Rev. 763 (2009). The following excerpts are taken from the introduction to the article: This Article argues that...

Happy First Day of Winter

Posted on December 21, 2009
Good Morning, Happy First Day of Winter! Gerry

The Widow's Election: A Proposal for Protecting Spouses and Insurance Companies in North Carolina

Posted on December 20, 2009
Jeffery S. Kinsler (professor of law, Elon University) has published his article entitled The Unmerry Widow: Spouse Disinheritance and Life Insurance in North Carolina, 87 N.C. Law Rev. 1869 (2009). The following is an abstract of the article: In spite...

Family of Author Stieg Larsson Make an Offer to Larsson's Longtime Girlfriend

Posted on December 20, 2009
Before his death in 2004, author Stieg Larsson wrote a successful trilogy of books, but he did not write a will. Although Swedish intestacy laws dictate that his million dollar estate pass to his family, his girlfriend of 32 years...

Top SSRN Downloads

Posted on December 20, 2009
Here are the top downloads from October 21, 2009 to December 30, 2009 from the SSRN Journal of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law for all papers announced in the last 60 days. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 424 2009 Federal...

Congress creating mega-problems by failing to act on the federal estate tax

Posted on December 19, 2009
Ashlea Ebeling does a great job of explaining the tremendous problems which will now arise because of the failure of Congress to take action on the estate tax before the end of 2009. Here are some excerpts from her article,...

The fate of the federal estate tax

Posted on December 19, 2009
It appears that Congress will not act to reinstate the federal estate tax before the end of 2009. Accordingly, it may seem that from an estate tax perspective, 2010 would be a good year for the wealthy to die. Remember,...

Courtney Love will not be daughter's guardian

Posted on December 18, 2009
The following information is based on Courtney Love Loses Legal Control of Daughter, TMZ.com, Dec. 14, 2009: Courtney Love has lost legal control over her and Kurt Cobain's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. The guardians for Frances will be Wendy O'Connor...

Estate Planning for Vacation Homes CLE

Posted on December 18, 2009
The National Business Institute is sponsoring a teleconference CLE on January 26, 2010 entitled Estate Planning for Vacation Homes. Here is a description of the program: Vacation home estate planning is no longer just for the wealthiest of your clients...

Is Scientology exploiting Michael Jackson?

Posted on December 18, 2009
According to Roger Friedman, Michael Jackson Exploited by Scientology, Showbiz411, Dec. 11, 2009, "Jackson?s likeness and music are being exploited by Scientology." Or, on the other hand, is the Scientology event just one of the many events "people and organizations...

Ohio court holds that the testator?s markings were insufficient to revoke entire document

Posted on December 18, 2009
The testator drew an ?X? through ten lines on the first page of her will, then marked out the X, struck out the amount of a general bequest of money, and wrote other writings and multiple signatures on the will...

Electronic Wills Analyzed

Posted on December 17, 2009
Joseph Karl Grant (Associate Professor of Law, Capital University Law School) has recently posted on SSRN his article entitled Shattering and Moving Beyond the Gutenberg Paradigm: the Dawn of the Electronic Will, 42 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 105 (2008). Here...

Same-Sex Marriage in Nation's Capital One Step Closer

Posted on December 17, 2009
On Tuesday (December 15, 2009), the City Council of Washington, D.C. voted to authorize same-sex marriage. The D.C. mayor, Adrain Fenty, claims that he will sign the bill. However, Mayor Fenty's signature is insufficient for the bill to become law....

Did the testator's conduct create a trust or debtor-creditor relationship?

Posted on December 17, 2009
The testator gave stock in a closely-held family corporation subject to the condition that the dividends on some of the stock be given to the testator?s sister. Litigation ensued over the question of whether the gift created a trust for...

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