Deborah Gordon, Forfeiting Trust, 57 William and Mary Law Review 455 (2015). Wills and many trusts have the same fundamental purpose: to transfer property at death. This raises perennial questions about the extent to which the law should treat these estate planning vehicles as functionally equivalent. I liked Deborah Gordon’s Forfeiting Trust because it reminds readers that consequences flow from the simple but fundamental distinction between wills and trusts. Trusts have trustees, beneficiaries, and the accompanying rules of fiduciary duty. Wills do not. Therefore not all rules that work well for wills can be applied to trusts … (more)
[Sarah Waldeck, JOTWELL, 14 February]
First posted 2017-02-15 06:52:23
Leave a Reply