Category Archives: Succession
Justin Shifrin, ‘HB 409, A Drastic Departure From Florida’s Traditional Stance On Will Execution Formalities’
ABSTRACT The baby boomer generation is aging, and many of the citizens that belong to this generation are retiring to Florida. Accordingly, Florida is expected to host one of the largest wealth transfers in history. And while the baby boomer population ages, our society is becoming more digitized. Things we traditionally did by pen and […]
Felix Chang, ‘How Should Inheritance Law Remediate Inequality?’
ABSTRACT This Essay argues that trusts and estates (‘T&E’) should prioritize intergenerational economic mobility – the ability of children to move beyond the economic station of their parents – above all other goals. The field’s traditional emphasis on testamentary freedom fosters the stickiness of inequality. For wealthy settlors, dynasty trusts sequester assets from the nation’s […]
Lusina Ho, ‘An Asian Approach to Mental Capacity for Wills and Lasting Powers’
ABSTRACT This chapter addresses the tension associated with applying English capacity law in the predominantly Chinese cultural contexts of Hong Kong and Singapore. Some judges in these Asian jurisdictions interpret even the most basic elements of the law to take into account the value of family protection. Some judges are committed to respecting the autonomous […]
‘Remote Witnessing of Wills: A Step in the Right Direction’
“The COVID-19 pandemic has incited some changes in the realms of estate and post-death planning. With the pandemic taking so many lives, many were forced to thinking about planning for their death, and they had nothing but time to do it. Many are required to self-isolate as to not risk their health or the health […]
‘New Hampshire Supreme Court Reverses Probate Court Finding That Son Was Not Pretermitted Heir’
“In In re Estate of Marie G Dow, ‘the New Hampshire Supreme Court analyzed the pretermitted heir statute and case law to determine that decedent’s son was a pretermitted heir and entitled to his intestate share of his mother’s estate’. Marie Dow executed her last will on June 30, 2014, when she lived in Massachusetts. […]
‘What to Do Before You Die: A Tech Checklist’
“When we think about what will happen to our ‘things’ when we die, we often do not consider our Facebook, twitter, google, or snapchat accounts. Technology is often the last thing on our minds. It may be time to consider putting together a tech checklist so that your loved ones can have access to digital […]
Brian Sloan, ‘Forfeiture and the Effect of Section 33A of the Wills Act 1837’
ABSTRACT The forfeiture rule is ‘the rule of public policy which in certain circumstances precludes a person who has unlawfully killed another from acquiring a benefit in consequence of the killing’. Section 33A of the Wills Act 1837 (applicable to deaths on or after 1 February 2012) provides that ‘where a will contains a devise […]
Fellows and Gallanis, ‘The Uniform Probate Code’s New Intestacy and Class Gift Provisions’
ABSTRACT Law and society inextricably link family and wealth transmission. An individual’s right to inherit from an intestate decedent depends on whether the individual has a legally recognized familial relationship to the decedent. Similarly, when a class gift in a donative document uses a term of relationship to identify the class members, an individual’s right […]
Bridget Crawford, ‘Blockchain Wills’
ABSTRACT Blockchain technology has the potential to radically alter the way that people have executed wills for centuries. This Article makes two principal claims – one descriptive and the other normative. Descriptively, the Article suggests that traditional wills formalities have been relaxed to the point that they no longer serve the cautionary, protective, evidentiary and […]
‘Remote Witnessing of Wills During the COVID-19 Pandemic’
“There has unsurprisingly been an uprise in the number of people making wills since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, though social distancing measures have created problems for people in terms of complying with the witnessing requirements of section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 (‘the Wills Act’). A temporary amendment to the Wills Act […]