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

History of the Supreme Court

Citation: Emrick, Eugene. History of the Supreme Court. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1900.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: In writing a history of the Supreme Court of the United States, a few words concerning the courts of England, after which our system was modeled, may not be out of place. In England, the jurisdiction and powers of the courts are not so great as here, and it is a source of complexity to the English statesman why our Supreme Court does not control the legislative department. England has no written constitution. What is termed her constitution, is but a code of laws which are constantly changed from year to year, as new laws are passed and old ones are taken away. Parliament is supreme. It makes all laws, and can unmake them at any time. If an English court finds a law of Parliament conflicting with a decided case, the act will be observed as it is supposed to be the last expression of Parliament on that subject. If the court misinterprets an act, or decides it differently from what Parliament intended, the decision will stand until Parliament again meets and reenacts the law. Their courts do not have to decide between two conflicting statutes. They simply look up the date of their enactments, and that of the later date will be the one observed. What is the decision of the court one year, may not be the next, for the court follows the acts of Parliament and Parliament may, at any time, pass a law which conflicts with, and repeals the one, on which the court has based its decision. Such, in brief, is the plan which the English courts follow

Mr. John Doe---Public Hero?

(First prize in the essay, Butler literary contest, 1948.) Have you ever wondered how many tons of paper roll daily out of the nation\u27s thundering presses to imprint the legendary and statistical status of Mr. John Doe upon the hearts of the masses? Neither John Gunther, the World Almanac, nor the Fact and Fiction Department of the Kremlin could cast any light upon this ponderous query. Although this matter seems to have escaped momentarily the attention of Renegade Joe, I am certain that Moscow will waste no time in ferreting out the requested statistical lore

Subject Combinations of Kentucky High School Teachers

Even though very good courses have been worked out for the numerous colleges of the state of Kentucky, there still remains a problem unanswered by the teacher-training institutions of the State. This problem is: What shall the prospective teacher be prepared to teach? and the question for the prospective teacher is: In what fields shall I prepare to teach? In order that the objective of this study - the ability to give more intelligent guidance from the standpoint of the teacher-training institutions and the ability to make the proper selection of subjects from the standpoint of the prospective teacher - may be attained, the problem becomes one of determining (1) how many subjects a high-school teacher in Kentucky should be prepared to teach and (2) the most desirable combinations of subjects. To answer these questions intelligently, we must know not only the number of subjects taught but the combinations that are taught in the high schools of Kentucky

An epidemiological analysis of the risk factors associated with adult hearing loss

Hearing loss is a widespread, and often untreated problem amongst adults in the United States (US). In fact, it is estimated that 16% of adults in the US - approximately 30 million Americans - have some degree of hearing loss (Agrawal, Platz, and Niparko, 2008). Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to examine the risk factors associated with adult hearing loss in the US. This document investigated risk factors and there interactions in an attempt to determine "why" and "in whom" adult hearing loss occurs. The risk factors examined in this study include: age, gender, race, education, cigarette smoking, and alcohol drinking. After examining the epidemiological/risk factor literature, several resounding themes/trends were observed, which included: that age (increasing), gender (male), and race/ethnicity (white participants) were all strongly associated with adult hearing loss, Non-Hispanic black participants demonstrated a protective association with adult hearing loss, and a protective association was observed with moderate consumption of alcohol. The clinical utility of the current risk factor assessment is the provision of tools to help design effective programs to decrease the impact of adult hearing loss and improve quality of life

The Effect of the Affordable Care Act on the Financial Stability of the Healthcare System

This paper explores published articles that report on results from research conducted about the successes of the Affordable Care Act and its relationship to the financial health of the healthcare industry. While efforts of the ACA to move healthcare towards financial stability have broad sweeping implications across the healthcare industry it is not clear whether the efforts were enough to stem the rising costs of healthcare in the United States. Ellis and Orszag (2007), theorized that the changes under the ACA to further educate patients on treatments would lead to a reduction in healthcare expenditures. Regulatory changes to the insurance marketplaces and acquisition and usage of healthcare insurance have played a prolific role in changing the face of the healthcare industry. Changes in policy, procedure and staffing have already begun to impact the costs of healthcare in America but flaws still exist in the system that are not directly addressed by the ACA. Cutler (2015) states, “The healthcare industry must make efforts to cut costs as the current situation of cost compared to economic growth is unsustainable” (p. 337). This paper examines the steps already taken by the ACA to achieve balance in healthcare expenditures and to prevent healthcare costs from further spiraling out of control