Tearing Down the Wall: How Transfer-on-Death Real-Estate Deeds Challenge the Inter Vivos/Testamentary Divide

This Article will examine one of the most recent will substitutes, the transfer-on-death (“TOD”) real-estate deed. Nearly half of the states have recognized, through common-law forms or legislation, a mechanism to allow for the transfer of real property on death without using a will, without following the will formalities, and without necessitating probate. This new tool in the estate planner’s toolbox is invaluable: revocable trusts have proven too expensive for decedents of modest means, and wills continue to require formalities that can easily frustrate non-lawyer-drafted estate documents. But the variety of TOD deed rules and mechanisms that the different states have adopted has led to disparity and uncertainty in form and outcome, resulting in litigation and frustration of decedent’s intent. We believe this uncertainty and frustration will continue as even more states adopt the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act (“URPTODA”), which purports to stabilize the law and facilitate testamentary intent. States grappling with this new form interpose significant differences, and lawyers and judges are not all on the same page as to the consequences. One source of confusion is the URPTODA’s provision that TOD deeds are non-testamentary and, at the same time, the Uniform Act provides that the property rights do not transfer until death. Although it is one thing to declare that TOD deeds are non-testamentary even though property rights don’t transfer until death—which in itself goes against centuries of formal legal rules—it is quite another to get all the other legal consequences to fall into place accordingly. For instance, would a state’s anti-lapse statute apply to save a beneficiary designation if the deed is deemed non-testamentary, even though the intent is to have the real property transfer upon death? In our opinion, the TOD deed pushes the juridical binary of inter vivos and testamentary transfers beyond coherence and rationality. The law of will substitutes has already undermined the rationality of maintaining the divide, and in this Article, we will argue that the time has finally come to reject the division between inter vivos and testamentary transfers and seek a rational and holistic set of tools and formalities to gain the benefits of probate avoidance that will substitutes provide with the ease of control and full revocability of wills. Elevating form over functionality, although a characteristic of the common law, inevitably disserves the interests of those who cannot afford lawyers who can easily draft around the sometimes-arcane distinctions between testamentary and inter vivos transfers to gain the benefits of each while avoiding the burdens

Pouring Nonprobate Assets into a Testamentary Trust: A Half-Protected Activity in Alaska

Den här rapporten ger en översikt över vad som gjorts och uppnåtts i projektet Grönovation under 2013 och fram till mars 2014. Rapporten innehåller ingen bakgrundsbeskrivning om projektet Grönovation. Det finns i andra dokument och kommer bli en del av kommande publikationer. Fokus här är att beskriva vilka aktiviteter som genomförts. Målet var att sammanfatta varje aktivitet snarare än att ge ”en hel uppsats” om varje. Vi kommer hänvisa till fördjupad dokumentation i de fall sådan är framtagen eller är på väg att tas fram. De olika aktiviteterna är presenterade i kronologisk ordning. Men i praktiken är flera av dem processer som löper över tiden. Några aktiviteter är fallstudier. Andra är påbörjade ”skarpa projekt”. Ytterligare några är av annan karaktär (t.ex. litteraturbaserade historiska studier). Vissa av fallstudierna speglar innovationer (eller tänkta innovationer). Andra speglar arenor som syftar till (eller de facto bidrar till) stimulans av innovativa processer. Den exakta kategoriseringen av aktiviteterna får göras senare i processen. Vi vill understryka att rapporten bara är delresultat. Analyser, fördjupade studier och mycket annat ligger framför oss. Men rapporten ger ändå en översikt och något att bygga vidare på. Vi är också medvetna om att rapporten kräver att läsaden är initierade i olika specialområden. Alla vet kanske inte vad en ”TopDown” är eller GPS switch är. I kommande publikationer med förmodat bredare läsekrets ska facktermer förklaras mer än vad vi gjort i detta utkast

Incorporation by Reference and Independent Legal Significance in the New York Law of Wills

In the substantive law of wills two theories of law are traditionally relied upon to permit consideration of extrinsic documents in the construction or expansion of a will. These two theories are the common law doctrines of incorporation by reference and independent legal significance. It is the purpose of this comment to analyze these theories of law in a dual aspect, first, to define the doctrines, applying them to their logical legal conclusions, and second, to assess the validity of various writings under existing New York law

Solicitors' will-making duties

Since the recognition that, in will-making practice, solicitors owe duties to beneficiaries as well as to clients, the courts have stated solicitors' will-making duties with some precision. However the law of tort still fails to offer an agreed rationale for them. This article suggests that, tortious principles aside, these duties spring from a clearer articulation of the solicitor's professional role as caretaker of clients' testamentary intentions. This idea explains most adjudication on will-making, while placing reasonably clear limits on solicitors' liabilities. This article's theory of the solicitor's caretaking role is the basis of its criticism of Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees v Henderson Trout (a firm) — where duties to one who merely hoped to be a beneficiary were recognised — and its conclusion that the duties stated there are conceptually precarious and practically unsustainable

Правова природа заповідального відказу за законодавством України

Nemionova, S.V. (2015), “Testamentary gift legal nature according to Ukrainian legislation” [“Pravova pryroda zapovidalnoho vidkazu za zakonodavstvom Ukrainy”], Pravo i Bezpeka, No. 1, pp. 72–75.Немьонова, С. В. Правова природа заповідального відказу за законодавством України // Право і безпека. - 2015. - № 1 (56). - С. 72-75.Під час дослідження правової природи заповідального відказу застосовано такі методи наукового дослідження, як історичний та порівняльно-аналітичний. За допомогою історичного методу доведено рецепцію заповідального відказу з права Давнього Риму. Порівняльно-аналітичний метод застосовано під час дослідження норм чинного законодавства України та співставлення їх з відповідними нормами законодавства РРФСР та РФ. Зроблено висновок, що заповідальний відказ у більшості випадків на практиці має зобов’язально-правову природу. Водночас не можна виключити можливість речової природи заповідального відказу.The rules of civil legislation and scientists’ views on the testamentary gift legal nature are analyzed. To this end historical and comparative analysis scientific research methods were used. By dint of historical scientific method the testamentary gift nature reception from Ancient Rome Law was proved. Comparative analysis scientific research method have been used during the research of current legislation rules and comparing them to appropriate rules of RUFSR and Russian Federation (RF) legislation. Famous civil law scientists’ points of view are highlighted. G. A. Bunich said that a testamentary gift is a special clause in a will. B. S. Antimonov analysed civil law rules and considered that testamentary gift was an obligation. Thus a legatee was a creditor and a heritor was a debtor. Legatee received rights to demand from the heir to fulfil the will. E. O. Kharitonov supported such a position and in his Ukraine Civil Code comments considered that a testator may obligate the heir to give his o her rights to another person. S. Y. Fursa and E. I. Fursa exemplify that a testamentary gift could be an obligate to pay legatee’s debt or to buy some thing and to give it to the legatee or to give legate right to drive a car for some period. There is no term of testamentary gift in the Civil Code of Ukraine. But the subject of legate (testamentary gift) is to transfer a thing to legatee in a property or another proprietary right. A thing can be a part of the heritance or not. Rules for testamentary gifts in Ukraine and RF were compared. The Civil Code of RF has rules that testamentary gift can be established not only for testamentary heirs but for legal heirs too. Ukrainian laws don’t have such rules and a testamentary gift is an obligation for testamentary heirs only. But according to the Civil Code of Ukraine legatee has a proprietary nature. In this article author concludes that in practice a testamentary gift is an obligation mostly. Court decisions also prove it. At the same time it can not be excluded that a testamentary gift can have a proprietary nature.При исследовании правовой природы завещательного отказа применены такие методы научного исследования, как исторический и сравнительно-аналитический. При помощи исторического метода доказана рецепция завещательного отказа из права Древнего Рима. Сравнительно-аналитический метод применялся во время исследования норм действующего законодательства Украины и сопоставления их с соответствующими нормами законодательства РСФСР и РФ. Сделан вывод о том, что завещательный отказ в большинстве случаев на практике имеет обязательственно-правовую природу. В то же время нельзя исключать возможность вещной природы завещательного отказа