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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-Offices May Face Stricter Regulation

Posted on June 08, 2010
Family-offices are noncommercial entities that provide investment management to families worth hundreds of millions or more. While only a few thousand exist, they account for around $1 trillion in assets. The Senate passed a reform bill last Friday that prolongs...

Tragic Will Dispute in Cumbria

Posted on June 08, 2010
A dispute with his twin brother over their mother?s will may have sparked Derrick Bird?s shooting spree on June 2 in quiet Cumbria, England. The 52-year-old grandfather started his killing spree with his brother, David Bird and attorney Kevin Commons...

Oklahoma Authorizes Pet Trusts

Posted on June 07, 2010
Oklahoma has become the 44th jurisdiction in the United States to have specific legislation authorizing pet trusts. 60 Okla. Stat. § 199 will take effect on August 27, 2010 and provides as follows: A. A trust for the care of...

Deductibility of Investment Advisory Expenses

Posted on June 07, 2010
Domingo P. Such, III (Attorney, Chicago, IL) and Thomas P. Ward (Attorney, Chicago, IL) recently published their article entitled Deductibility of Investment Advisory Expenses by Individuals, Estates and Non-Grantor Trusts, 35 ACTEC J. 407 (2010). The introduction is below: This...

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Tips for Dealing with the Current Estate Tax

Posted on June 07, 2010
Diana S.C. Zeydel (attorney, Miami, FL) recently published her article entitled A Phantom Estate Tax, Private Wealth, May 10, 2010. An excerpt from the beginning of the article is below: When Congress passed the 2001 tax act, few expected the...

New York exempts pet trusts from the Rule Against Perpetuities

Posted on June 07, 2010
New York eliminated the 21-year limit for the duration of pet trusts and provided that pet trusts terminate when the living animal beneficiary or beneficiaries of the trust are no longer alive. 2010 Sess. Law News of N.Y. Ch. 70...

Top SSRN Downloads

Posted on June 06, 2010
Here are the top downloads from April 6, 2010 to June 5, 2010 from the SSRN Journal of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law for all papers announced in the last 60 days. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 274 The FLP,...

New publications for T&E professors

Posted on June 06, 2010
Thomas P. Gallanis (N. William Hines Professor of Law, University of Iowa) reports the following: The Uniform Law Commission has given its final approval to more than 250 pages of technical and conforming amendments to the Uniform Probate Code. These...

Statement by LegalZoom concerning the Courthouse News Service story regarding litigation filed on May 27, 2010

Posted on June 05, 2010
Yesterday, I posted information about a class action lawsuit against LegalZoom. Below is LegalZoom's response to the Courthouse News Service story: LegalZoom is dedicated to providing convenient and affordable solutions that help consumers create their own legal documents...

Battle Over Dennis Hopper's Estate

Posted on June 05, 2010
Dennis Hopper, star of ?Easy Rider,? died last Saturday at age 74 from cancer. At the time of his death, Hopper was in the midst of a bitter divorce battle with Victoria Duffy-Hopper. Now the battle is expected to move...

State Statutes on Virtual Representation

Posted on June 04, 2010
Susan T. Bart (Attorney, Chicago, IL.) and Lyman W. Welch (Attorney, Chicago, IL) recently published their article entitled State Statutes on Virtual Representation--A New State Survey, 35 ACTEC J. 368 (2010). The Editor's synopsis is below: The common law doctrine...

Price's Marriage Lie Raises Estate Planning Issues

Posted on June 04, 2010
Shannon Price and Gary Coleman wed in 2007. Last Friday, after Gary's accident, Shannon authorized doctors to take Gary off of life support in accordance with his living will. On Wednesday, Entertainment Tonight revealed that Price and Coleman were actually...

Gary Coleman May Have a Will

Posted on June 04, 2010
As I previously blogged, uncertainty regarding Gary Coleman?s estate arose when Entertainment Tonight revealed that Shannon Price lied about being married to Coleman. According to his Diff?rent Strokes co-star Todd Bridges, Coleman had a secret will at the time of...

LegalZoom Class Action Lawsuit

Posted on June 04, 2010
A class action against LegalZoom alleges that the online legal document preparation service uses unfair and deceptive business practices. It claims to ?customize? its documents, but all it does is change the name and identifying information. Katherine Webster, executor of...

Increasing Popularity of Client Maintenance Programs Among Estate Planners

Posted on June 03, 2010
When WealthCounsel conducted its 3rd Annual Industry Trends Survey, nearly 1/3 of estate planners said that they would like to add ?client maintenance programs? to their business model. Such programs provide certain services on an annual basis as a method...

Drafting Tips from a Fiduciary's Perspective

Posted on June 03, 2010
Benjamin H Pruett (Attorney, Washington D.C.) recently published his article entitled Tales from the Dark Side: Drafting Issues from the Fiduciary's Perspective, 35 ACTEC J. 331 (2010). The introduction is below: The following materials come from the author's observations since...

State Need Not Consider Reverse Mortgage When Calculating Value of Medicaid Applicant's Life Estate

Posted on June 03, 2010
In Wolf v. N.Y. State Dep't of Health, the New York Supreme Court found that the state doesn't have to deduct reverse mortgage expenses when determining the value of a Medicaid applicant's life estate. Faith Wolf reserved a life estate...

What to Look for in a Trustee

Posted on June 03, 2010
Earl E Watson III (Managing Principal, North American Management) recently published his article entitled A Matter of Trust, Private Wealth, May 10, 2010. An excerpt from the beginning of the article is below: Trusts have been part of the estate-planning...

Reciprocal Relationships Bring in Clients

Posted on June 02, 2010
The most effective way for trust companies to gain clients is to form reciprocal relationships with other professionals, such as: Estate planners. When an estate planner realizes that it?s time to move a client?s assets into a trust, the client...

UPIA Influences the Investment Practices of Trustees

Posted on June 02, 2010
Max M. Schanzenbach (Benjamin Mazur Professor of Law, Northwestern Law) and Robert H. Sitkoff (John L. Gray Professor of Law, Harvard Law) recently published their article entitled The Prudent Investor Rule and Trust Asset Allocation: An Empirical Analysis, 35 ACTEC...

Caregiver Abuse: Marrying for an Elective Share

Posted on June 02, 2010
As the baby boomers continue to age, caregivers abuse the situation at an increasing rate. Two New York cases took abuse to a new level: In re Berk, 2010 N.Y. Slip Op. 02139 (Supreme Court, March 16, 2010). Irving Berk,...

Texas Requires a "Case Information Sheet" for Probate Cases

Posted on June 02, 2010
On May 3, 2010, the Supreme Court of Texas signed an order requiring most civil actions (including those involving probate) to include a "case information sheet" starting September 1, 2010. For more information about this new requirement and for the....

Non-Probate Assets and Intestacy -- An Empirical Study

Posted on June 01, 2010
E. Gary Spitko (Professor of Law, Santa Clara Law School), Mary L. Fellows (Everett Fraser Professor of Law, University of Minnesota School of Law), and Charles Q. Strohm (Ph.D. Candidate, University of California) have recently published their article entitled An...

IRS Publishes Decisions of Disciplinary Cases

Posted on June 01, 2010
In 2008, the IRS? Office of Professional Responsibility started publishing the decisions of the judges and officials who handle its disciplinary cases. This system provides much more insight to tax advisors regarding what exactly can get them in trouble as...

Second Marriages Cause Court Battles Over Esates

Posted on June 01, 2010
Caren Chesler (freelance journalist) recently published her article entitled Wills Torn Asunder, Private Wealth, May 2010. An excerpt from the beginning of the article is below:There once was a man who married a woman much younger than him. They were...

Top SSRN Downloads

Posted on June 01, 2010
Here are the top downloads from March 31, 2010 to May 30, 2010 from the SSRN Journal of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law for all papers announced in the last 60 days. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 363 The Federal...

In-House Trust Capabilities for Investment Advisors

Posted on May 31, 2010
Advisors Institutional Services, a Massachusetts-based firm, believes that investment advisors can benefit from having in-house trust capabilities. By outsourcing trust services, investment advisors lose potential trustee fees and aren?t getting the flexibility that they need to meet clients? sometimes unique...

The Cost of the Estate Tax Mess

Posted on May 31, 2010
Paul L Caron (Professor of Law, University of Cincinnati) recently published his article entitled The Costs of Estate Tax Dithering, 44 Creighton L. Rev. (2010). The abstract which is available on SSRN is below:President Obama was widely criticized for ?dithering?...

Owning Artworks

Posted on May 31, 2010
Rebecca Korach Woan (Owner, Chartwell Insurance Services) recently published her article entitled True Art Ownership, Private Wealth, May 2010. An excerpt from the beginning of the article is below: It should be axiomatic that no prudent art collector would buy...

Estate Taxes Cause Fights Among Beneficiaries

Posted on May 31, 2010
As I previously blogged, fights over who must pay taxes on inheritances can cause feuds among beneficiaries. While most states? default laws apportion taxes among all beneficiaries, a will can override these default laws. A typical will contains a ?Dad-buys-dinner?...

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