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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.
Post Frequency: 44.9/day Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:00:00 Recent Entries: 3678
By Gerry W. Beyer
Go to Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog, find other Estate Planning blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Blog ranked #22 among blogs edited by law professors
Posted on October 30, 2008The Wills, Trusts, & Estates Prof Blog ranks #22 in popularity among blogs edited by law professors with publicly available SiteMeters for the most recent 12-month period (October 1, 2007 - September 30, 2008). To all my readers, I greatly...
Planning for Disability -- Australian Style
Posted on October 29, 2008Terry Carney (Professor of Law, Sydney Law School) and Patrick Keyzer (Professor and Deputy Dean, Bond University) have posted on SSRN their article entitled Planning for the Future: Arrangements for the Assistance of People Planning for the Future of People...
Britney Spears conservatorship to continue
Posted on October 29, 2008On October 28, 2008 Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz extended the conservatorship over the person and property of singer Britney Spears for an indefinite period of time. Here are some details from Anthony McCartney, Court extends Spears' conservatorship...
Assisted eating and drinking -- Ethical issues
Posted on October 29, 2008Robert L. Fine (MD, FACP, Office of Clinical Ethics, Baylor Health Care System; Palliative Care Consultation Service, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas) has recently reprinted his article in the Fall 2008 issue of The Journal of the National College...
Non-Probate Assets -- An Empirical Study
Posted on October 29, 2008E. 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 posted their article on SSRN entitled...
Family Limited Partnerships Analyzed
Posted on October 28, 2008Walter D. Schwidetzky (Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law) has posted his article on SSRN entitled Family Limited Partnerships: The Beat Goes On, 60 Tax Law. 277 (2007). Here is an abstract of the article: It is...
Investing IRAs in non-traditional assets
Posted on October 28, 2008The following excerpts are from Deborah L. Jacobs, Putting an I.R.A. to Work in Ventures Beyond Stocks, N.Y. Times, Oct. 23, 2008: At a time when many I.R.A. portfolios are being battered by poor stock market returns, it is tempting...
The Estate Planning -- Psychology Interface
Posted on October 28, 2008The following excerpts are from Elda Di Re & Terry Eyberg, Psychology of Succession Planning, Forbes.com, Oct. 21, 2008: The family must * * * consider the psychology of succession planning, which includes a number of emotional issues that can...
Social Security Benefits Calculator Update
Posted on October 28, 2008Earlier on this blog, I discussed how the Social Security Administration added a benefits calculator to its website called The Retirement Estimator. This program produces estimates that are based on the user's actual Social Security earnings record. In other words,...
Rich divided on better candidate to be President
Posted on October 27, 2008Conventional wisdom is that low and middle class individuals are more likely to support Democratic candidates while wealthy individuals support Republican candidates. According to Robert Frank, Political Divide in Richistan, Wall St. J., Oct. 18-19, 2008, at B4, this may...
New York Update
Posted on October 27, 2008Martin O?Toole (Partner, Harter Secrest & Emery LLP) recently authored an article entitled Trusts and Estates, 58 Syracuse L. Rev. 1191. (2008). Here is a summary of his article: Mr. O?Toole discusses various areas of the practice of Trusts and...
New York slayers and tenancies by the entirety
Posted on October 27, 2008Kathleen Reilly (J.D. Candidate, June 2009) recently authored an article entitled Making a Killing in Real Estate: Solving the Mystery of Murder?s Effect on Tenancy by the Entirety in New York?A Legislative Solution, 82 St. John?s L. Rev. 1203 (2008)...
Same-Sex Marriage and the upcoming election
Posted on October 27, 2008Earlier on this blog, I discussed the case of In re Marriage Cases decided May 15, 2008 in which the California Supreme Court held in a 4-3 opinion that two state laws that had limited marriages to opposite-sex partners are...
Top SSRN Downloads
Posted on October 26, 2008Here are the top downloads from August 27, 2008 to October 26, 2008 from the SSRN Journal of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law for all papers announced in the last 60 days. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 87 Toward a...
More on impact of presidential election on federal wealth transfer taxes
Posted on October 26, 2008Earlier on this blog, I briefly compared the positions of Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain on federal transfer taxation. Here is some additional information from Floyd Norris, New Life for the Death Tax, NY Times, Oct. 23, 2008: Mr....
How to reduce estate and trust litigation
Posted on October 25, 2008Jonathan G. Blattmachr (Partner, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP) recently authored an article entitled Reducing Estate and Trust Litigation Through Disclosure, In Terrorem Clauses, Mediation and Arbitration, 9 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 237 (2008)...
Foreclosure impacts dead people
Posted on October 25, 2008The impact of housing foreclosures on the living is obvious but there may also be an impact on dead people as reported in AP, Dead Removed After Funeral Home Falls Into Foreclosure, FOXNews.com, Oct. 24, 2008. The House of Burns...
Joint representation in the estate planning context
Posted on October 24, 2008John R. Price (Professor of Law Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, University of Washington School of Law) recently authored an article entitled In Honor of Professor John Gaubatz: The Fundamentals of Ethically Representing Multiple Clients in Estate Planning, 62 U...
Religious Influence as Undue Influence
Posted on October 24, 2008Jeffrey G. Sherman (Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law) recently authored an article entitled Can Religious Influence Ever Be ?Undue? Influence?, 73 Brook. L. Rev. 579 (2008). Here is an excerpt from his article's Introduction: In Part I of...
Estate of John Strauss v. Jay Leno -- Update
Posted on October 24, 2008Earlier on this blog, I reported on a dispute between the Estate of John Strauss and Jay Leno regarding Jay's purchase of John's 1931 Model J Duesenberg from the Windsor Garage in New York which sold the car to pay...
Tribute to Prof. John Gaubatz
Posted on October 24, 2008Earlier on this blog, I reported on the death of Prof. John Gaubatz of the University of Miami School of Law. Jeffrey N. Pennell (Richard H. Clark Professor of Law, Emory Law School) has recently authored an article entitled In...
Estate Planning for Same-Sex Families
Posted on October 23, 2008Patience Crozier (Attorney, Cambridge, MA) has published an article entitled Nuts and Bolts: Estate Planning and Family Law Considerations for Same-Sex Families, 30 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 751. Here is a summary of her article: These statutory provisions express...
The "pooring" of the rich
Posted on October 23, 2008According to Robert Frank, Why the Rich Are Losing Their Share of Wealth, The Wealth Report, WSJ.com, Oct. 22, 2008: Economic populism is back, with attacks against inequality and the ?greedy rich? back in style. But at the very moment...
Making T&E "popular" with law students
Posted on October 23, 2008Bridget J. Crawford (Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, Pace Law School) has posted her article on SSRN entitled Bringing Trusts & Estates to the Front and Center of Legal Education. Here is an abstract...
Restricted Gifts and University Endowments
Posted on October 23, 2008Iris Goodwin (Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law) has posted her article on SSRN entitled Congressional Roundtable on College Endowments - Restricted Gifts Testimony. Here is a summary of her article: Restricted purpose gifts potentially bear...
Ethics of Organ Transplantation Conference
Posted on October 22, 2008On March 27-29, 2009, The Center for Thomistic Studies and St. Joseph Medical Center are sponsoring a conference entitled The Ethics of Organ Transplantation at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas. Here is a description of the conference: The...
Elder Law and the Same-Sex Couple
Posted on October 22, 2008Aimee Bouchard (attorney, Springfield, MA) and Kim Zadworny (attorney, Northampton, MA) have written an article entitled Growing Old Together: Estate Planning Concerns for the Aging Same-Sex Couples, 30 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 713. Here is a summary of the...
Estate Planning for a transgender client
Posted on October 22, 2008Spencer Bergstedt (Partner, Bergstedt Wolff P.S., Lynnwood, Washington) has written an article entitled Estate Planning and the Transgender Client, 30 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 675 (2008). Here is a summary of the article: This Article will also provide some...
Prof. Gerzog posts previous articles
Posted on October 22, 2008Prof. Wendy Gerzog (Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law) has recently posted several of her previous articles on SSRN. These articles include the following: Contingencies and the Estate Tax, 5 Fla. Tax Rev. 49 (2001). The Marital....
Standing of parents to contest a will may be based on sameness/differentness of the sex of the child's surviving spouse
Posted on October 21, 2008The following post is supplied through the courtesy of Bridget Crawford (Professor of Law, Pace University School of Law) from her posting on the Feminist Law Professors Blog entitled Gay, Married and Testate in Queens: In Queens, New York, the...
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If a person defames me and threatens me to pay a bill that they made and it is posted to others besides myself, can I sue ?
The documentation of your actions in this case pretty much preclude any legal ac...
Is it libel to write blog posts and/or online reviews about a local business that defames one's reputation?
Libel is the form of defamation expressed in fixed-- usually written form. Sland...
I myself live in chicago and i believe me grandmother and father have left me property in flordia but i belive my father is trying to hide it from me. i was wondering if anybody knows how i can get a copy of both of ther
public records or hire and attorney and have the documents subponead...
How can I make my blog more popular?
You have to write and submit articles, with backlinks to your blogsite....








