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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

Ninth Circuit Decision: Posthumous Children and Social Security Benefits

Posted on July 10, 2009
On May 6, 2009, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a child conceived with a man's sperm three years after his death is not eligible for Social Security survivorship benefitsunder California Law. The sperm was retrieved from the...

Book Examines Revenue Ruling 59-60

Posted on July 10, 2009
Mercer Capital has published a new book entitled Revenue Ruling 59-60 at 50: Rediscover Fair Market Value, Mercer Capital (2009). Here is an excerpt from the preface of the book: Tagging a text with the label ?classic? should not be...

Michael Jackson's Funeral as an Estate Tax Deduction?

Posted on July 10, 2009
The media coverage of Michael Jackson's extravagant public memorial left some asking whether the expense of it all is deductible for estate tax purposes. Under applicable regulations, only the portion of funeral expenses paid for with estate property subject to...

Massachusetts AG challenges Defense of Marriage Act

Posted on July 10, 2009
On July 8, Massachusetts AG Martha Coakly filed a federal lawsuit claiming the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. The details are below. The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman....

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Will Calls for Womanless Library

Posted on July 09, 2009
When Iowa attorney T.M. Zinkdied, his will directed that $35,000 be placed in a trust fund. After 75 years, Zink directed that the money be used to build the Zink Womanless Library, which would contain no books written by women...

Man Claims to be Son of JFK and Marilyn Monroe

Posted on July 09, 2009
A U.S. District Court in New York recently granted a motion to dismiss a case filed by a man claiming to be the son of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. The facts of the case are as follows: The...

Hospice Care for Fido

Posted on July 09, 2009
Hospice care for pets with terminal illnesses, similar to hospice care provided for humans, is an emerging trend across the United States, and it provides an alternative to the traditional method of relief, euthanasia. Pet hospice provides comfort to both...

Jackson's Trust Contains 'No Contest' Clause

Posted on July 09, 2009
A recent New York Times article says this about Michael Jackson's estate: The trust contains a ?no contest? clause, which typically means that if a beneficiary unsuccessfully challenges the will?s validity, that person no longer can receive any benefit from...

Who Bears Estate Tax on Gift Tax?

Posted on July 08, 2009
Bridget J. Crawford (professor of law, Pace University) and Jonathan G. Blattmachr (attorney, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP) have posted on SSRN their article entitled Estate Tax on Gift Tax: The Liability Conundrum, Tax Notes, June 28, 2009. The...

Pension Fund to Benefit from Jackson's Death

Posted on July 08, 2009
There's good news for Dutch pension fund ABP, which owns the rights to some of Michael Jackson's songs. According to the Telegraph, "Jackson's solo album sales in the United States jumped from 10,000 copies in the week before his death...

CLE: 'Estate Planning for the Family Business Owner'

Posted on July 08, 2009
The ABA Section of Taxation and the ABA Section of Real Property, Trust & Estate Law are co-sponsoring a live course andcorresponding live video webcast CLE entitled Estate Planning for the Family Business Owner on July 22-24 in Santa Fe,...

Lincoln, Nebraska Benefits from Federal Trust Law

Posted on July 08, 2009
When Robert Crawford died in 1970 the residual of his estate, about $100,000, went into the Robert P. Crawford Trust, where it was to remain for 99 years. Crawford directed that after 99 years, the money be used to build...

Jackson's Legal Legacy

Posted on July 07, 2009
CNN published an interesting article recounting Michael Jackson's lifetime of legal woes. The article calls Jackson "a one-man cottage industry for the legal profession" because of child molestation investigations, divorces, dozens of personal lawsuits, threatened foreclosure on Neverland Ranch and...

Astor Update: Trial Slowly Moving Along

Posted on July 07, 2009
The following excerpts from a New York Times article provide an update on the trial against Anthony Marshall, Brooke Astor's son: Brooke Astor?s federal gift tax return was under reported by about $1.7 million in 2003, according to testimony on...

Actor Karl Malden Dead

Posted on July 07, 2009
Actor Karl Malden, who won an oscar for his performance in for A Street Car Named Desire, appeared in TV's The Streets of San Fransisco, and pitched the line "don't leave home without it" for American Express, died at the...

Family Limited Partnership Case Analyzed

Posted on July 07, 2009
Prof. Wendy Gerzog (Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law) has recently posted on SSRN her article entitled Jorgensen: A Familiar FLP Story, Tax Notes, 2009. Here is the abstract of the article: Jorgensen provides a common FLP...

OxiClean Spokesman Dies

Posted on July 06, 2009
Billy Mays, the shouting TV pitch-man for OxiClean and other products, died in his sleep on June 28, 2009. An autopsy revealed that heart disease was the likely cause of death and not a bump to the head that occurred...

Book Provides Useful Guide for Dealing With the Inevitable

Posted on July 06, 2009
Jane Brody (columnist, NY Times) has published her book entitled Jane Brody's Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Guide to Help You and Your Loved Ones Prepare Medically, Legally, and Emotionally for the End of Life, Random House (2009)....

'Present but not Voting'

Posted on July 06, 2009
Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher and legal social reformer, died in 1832. His will directed that his body be embalmed, clothed, and placed in his chair as if he was thinking. The preserved remains can still be viewed in a...

A Different Perspective on Jackson's Estate

Posted on July 06, 2009
While many articles covering the death of Michael Jackson ponder the amount of debt he left behind, one article points out that increased purchases of all-things-Michael combined with a loss of Jackson's exorbitant spending could be beneficial for the estate...

Selecting the best grant-making charitable entity

Posted on July 05, 2009
Stephanie B. Casteel (partner, King & Spalding LLP) has recently published her article entitled Philanthropy and Choice of Grant-Making Entity in a Changing World, Prob. & Prop., March/April 2009, at 52. Here is the introduction of her article: The Pension...

Top SSRN Downloads

Posted on July 05, 2009
Here are the top downloads from May 6, 2009 to July 5, 2009 from the SSRN Journal of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law for all papers announced in the last 60 days. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 302 How the...

New York STOLI Litigation

Posted on July 04, 2009
When an investor convinces someone to purchase an insurance policy on their life and then purchases the policy from the insured, gambling on the length of the insured's life, this is called a stranger originated life insurance policy (STOLI). Justice...

Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 04, 2009
Happy Fourth of July!!

Damages for failure to sell real property not properly measured by appraised value

Posted on July 03, 2009
A coal mine was the sole principal asset of a testamentary trust created in 1921. The testator directed the co-trustees to hold the mine absent ?very radical change? from current conditions. The revenue from the mine began to decline greatly...

Intestate Succession under the Catalan Code

Posted on July 03, 2009
Maurici Perez Simeon has recently posted on SSRN his article entitled Legal Rights v. Will When Testator's Beneficiary Predeceases the Testator, InDret, Volume 3, 2008. Here is the abstract of his article: Section 144.2 of the Catalan Code of Succession...

Michael Jackson -- Update

Posted on July 03, 2009
The following information is based on Michael Jackson's will; Jackson service set for Tuesday, BBC News, July 3, 2009; Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Jackson sales surge outstrips Presley, Fin. Times, June 30, 2009; Christopher Beam, Grave Concerns: Is it legal to bury...

Farms and the Federal Estate Tax

Posted on July 03, 2009
Don Hurst (USDA, Economic Research Service) has recently posted on SSRN his article entitled Federal Tax Policies and Farm Households, Economic Information Bulletin 54. Here is the abstract of his article: Significant changes in Federal individual income and estate tax...

Are express and constructive trusts closer kin than usually thought?

Posted on July 02, 2009
Lionel Smith (Director, Quebec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law) has posted his article on SSRN entitled Philosophical Foundations of Proprietary Remedies, PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE LAW OF UNJUST ENRICHMENT, R. Chambers, C. Mitchell, J...

Enjoying Art as Collateral

Posted on July 02, 2009
Art Capital Group specializes in lending to art owners in need of cash. The art owners put of their painting as collateral, which Art Capital will sell for a commission and repayment of the original loan in the event of...

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