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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

Buy Your Coffin at Costco - Or, Just Build it Yourself

Posted on June 08, 2009
Changing ideas about traditional funeral and burial practices are bringing change to the industry. Death planning now includes options like a personalized funeral service where the Good Humor Man passes out ice cream, buying your coffin at Costco, and purchasing...

Top SSRN Downloads

Posted on June 08, 2009
Here are the top downloads from April 9, 2009 to June 8, 2009 from the SSRN Journal of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law for all papers announced in the last 60 days. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 226 How the...

Communication Challenges

Posted on June 08, 2009
Gerry W. Beyer (Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professor of Law, Texas Tech University School of Law) has recently posted on SSRN his article entitled The Communicationally Challenged Testator, Estate Planning Developments for Texas Professionals, April 2009...

Details on Natasha Richardson's Will

Posted on June 08, 2009
Details on the will left by Natasha Richardson, the London actress who died after a skiing accident, are available. Although she left the bulk of her estate to her husband, she also included her sister, an aunt, an employee, and...

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"Estate Planning for Blended Families" by Richard E. Barnes published

Posted on June 07, 2009
Richard E. Barnes (Elliott, Blackburn, Barnes & Gooding, P.C, Valdosta, Georgia) has recently published his book entitled Estate Planning for Blended Families: Providing for Your Spouse & Children in a Second Marriage. Here is the publisher's (Nolo) description of this...

Digital Estate Planning

Posted on June 07, 2009
Another article is available on the importance of including internet passwords, which are inevitable in an increasingly on-line world, in an estate plan. More information on this subject can be found in previous posts here and here, and in the...

Psycholegal study of property law

Posted on June 07, 2009
Jeremy A. Blumenthal (Associate Professor of Law, Syracuse Univ. Law School) has posted on SSRN his article entitled 'To Be Human': A Psychological Perspective on Property Law, 83 Tulane L. Rev. (2009). Here is the abstract of his article: The...

Newcomb College - Tulane University Update

Posted on June 06, 2009
I previously summarized the controversy surrounding Tulane University's closing of Newcomb College, a women?s college affiliated with the university. Below are excerpts from Save New College, Summary Judgment Motion Filed in Newcomb College Case, May 27, 2009, regarding a motion...

Louisiana's forced heirship law analyzed

Posted on June 06, 2009
Vincent D. Rougeau (Associate Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School) has posted on SSRN his article entitled No Bonds but Those Freely Chosen: An Obituary for the Principle of Forced Heirship in American Law. Here is the abstract of...

Personal Care Agreements

Posted on June 05, 2009
Deborah Ann Wainey (Avard Law Offices, Cape Coral, Flordia) has recently published her article entitled Preventing Family Feuds, Trial, April 2009, at 30. Here is an excerpt from her article: When families choose to care for aging relatives at home,....

Avidly Managing and Protecting Literary Estates

Posted on June 05, 2009
A recent Financial Times article about literary estate management focuses on the trend in managing copyrighted works of deceased writers with avid promotion and protection. Some estates have taken immense measures to ensure the integrity and prosperity of their intellectual...

Trusts and Insolvency -- U.K. Style

Posted on June 05, 2009
David Robert Gregory and John Paul Tribe (KPMG Lecturer in Restructuring, Kingston Univ.) have posted on SSRN their article entitled At the Interface of Trusts Law and Insolvency Law: The Quest for Alternative Forms of Risk Management. Here is a...

Inheritance Tax -- A comparative analysis

Posted on June 05, 2009
Ann Mumford (Senior Lecturer in Tax, Queen Mary School of Law) has recently posted on SSRN her article entitled From Dahomey, to London, to DC: 'Marketing' Wealth with the Proposal for a Comprehensive Inheritance Tax. Here is a summary of...

Don't go scuba diving with a benficiary -- Update

Posted on June 05, 2009
Earlier on this blog, I reported that Gabe Watson would stand trial for the death of his wife, Tina Watson, in what was formerly deemed an accidental drowning while scuba diving. The alleged motive for the crime was to collect...

Same-sex marriage approved in New Hampshire

Posted on June 04, 2009
On June 3, 2009, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch signed House Bill 73 authorizing same-sex marriages. However, same-sex couples will need to wait until next year to take advantage of the new law as it will not be effective until...

Electing a County Coroner: Pennsylvania

Posted on June 04, 2009
In the vast majority of counties in Pennsylvania, the county coroner is elected. A candidate only needs to be a registered voter and many coroners do not have not medical background or a background in forensic pathology. Some feel this...

West Texas Estate Administration Gets Messy

Posted on June 04, 2009
Amarillo, Texas: When the founder of the American Housing Foundation died in a suicide car crash, he left behind an estate worth $12.4 million, $24 million in life insurance proceeds, and a foundation with $459 million in debt. Currently, creditors...

Astor Trial Continues

Posted on June 04, 2009
Mrs. Astor's former attorney, Henry Christensen III, has completed six days of testimony. Here are some of the highlights from that testimony: Christensen simultaneously represented Astor and her son Marshall. From 1960 to 1970 Marshall was the sole heir of...

Interview with wife of face donor

Posted on June 03, 2009
Earlier on this blog, I reported on the seventh face transplant which was performed in Boston on April 9, 2009. The wife of the face donor recently made an appearance on ABC discussing her decision to donate her husband's face....

How far would you go if you could not marry the woman of your dreams?

Posted on June 03, 2009
A man in Egypt tried for two years to get permission from his father to marry a woman from a lower family class. Instead of getting married anyway or eloping, the man decided to take an extreme step, IMHO. He...

Supreme Court Rejects Steinbeck Appeal

Posted on June 03, 2009
I previously posted an entry on the fight over some of John Steinbeck's greatest works and the ultimate court decision holding that Penguin has a superior right to these works than do his heirs. On May 19, 2009, the U.S....

Battle Over Conservatorship for Columbo Star

Posted on June 03, 2009
The daughter and the wife of Peter Falk have both petitioned to be appointed conservator of the former Columbo star, who has dementia. Falk's daughter is from his first marriage and is concerned about Falk's care and her visitation access....

Funeral Homes Perform Unlikely Role: Death Investigation

Posted on June 02, 2009
Kansas City recently changed important policies after funeral homes discovered tell-tale signs of unnatural deaths in bodies that were not autopsied and were reported as dying from natural causes. The fact that funeral homes were performing roles that medical examiners...

Economic Crisis May Affect Self-Paying Life Insurance Policies

Posted on June 02, 2009
Some life insurance policies, especially those created in the 1980's and 1990's, may not be able to self-pay premiums as expected. This is due to the high return that was anticipated when they were created and the unexpected trouble in...

Modern-Day Pharaohs

Posted on June 02, 2009
Wilhelm's Portland Memorial Funeral Home, Mausoleum, and Crematory has a burial room fit for a king. The Rae Room, which is about 15'x15', contains stained glass, wall-to-floor Italian marble, bronze doors, two massive sarcophagi, and a couple of wicker chairs...

The Unclaimed Dead are On-line in San Bernardino

Posted on June 02, 2009
San Bernardino county is believed to be the first to implement an on-line database for the unclaimed dead. Here's an overview of how the San Bernardino system for the unclaimed operates: The unclaimed are cremated and held for about a...

Estate of Dee Dee Ramone in Court over Book

Posted on June 01, 2009
A lawsuit in a Manhattan court has delayed the publication of a book by Dee Dee Ramone's first wife that she wrote about the late-rocker. The executor of Ramone's estate alleges that the book violates an agreement that was supposed...

Purple DNRs -- Resuscitation Orders in Kentucky

Posted on June 01, 2009
Prompted by a small but concerning number of resuscitation order violations, a group of advocates, state officials, and nursing home representatives in Kentucky are working to make these orders more effective for nursing home residents. One proposed solution is a...

Delaware RAP Tax-Traps

Posted on June 01, 2009
James P. Spica (Attorney, Honigan Miller Schwartz and Cohn Miller LLP) has recently published an article entitled A Trap for the Weary: Delaware's Anti-Delaware-Tax-Trap Statute is Too Clever by Half (of Infinity), 43 Real Prop. Tr. & Est. L.J. 673...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Wills, Trusts, and Estates

Posted on June 01, 2009
With the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor (United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit) for the United States Supreme Court, much has been made of her opinions addressing a variety of issues but little has been written about...

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