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Wills, Trusts, and Estates in Focus, Second Edition

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Authors
  • Naomi R. Cahn
  • Alyssa DiRusso
  • Susan N. Gary
Series / Focus Casebook Series
BOOKMARK
Book length
632 pages
Publication Date
2025-02-01
Edition
Second Edition
Teaching Materials
NO
Description
Table of contents
Preface

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on Casebook Connect, including lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities. Access also includes practice questions, an outline tool, and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes.

In a Wills, Trusts, and Estates (WTE) class, there are students who plan to practice WTE (exclusively, or as part of a general practice), and those who need only master the general concepts to pass the bar exam. Wills, Trusts, and Estates in Focus, Second Edition, attends to the needs of both sets of students. For those who will practice in WTE, concepts are exemplified by realistic hypothetical scenarios that mirror practice and support the development of lawyering skills. For those who take WTE as a requisite course for the bar, the organization of text is keyed to the topics on the essay portion of the multi-state bar examination. Moreover, in the Second Edition, most problem sets now reflect the structure of the NextGen Bar's foundational skills requirements. (For example, one foundational skill is to “Identify which facts are likely to be relevant to or dispositive of a legal issue in a matter,” so some problems now prompt the student to similarly note the dispositive facts.)

Well-crafted pedagogy makes WTE concepts and procedure clear and accessible for all students. Straightforward exposition and examples support independent learning. Concisely edited cases are framed by Case Previews and Post-Case Follow-Ups that highlight the issue at hand, review the court’s decision, provide context, and prepare students to apply the relevant legal principles to the exercises that follow: Real Life Applications. Content summaries and problem sets at the end of each chapter enable students to review and assess their mastery of content.

New to the Second Edition
  • Expanded discussion of survival, with references to attempted updates to the Uniform Determination of Death Act
  • Enhanced coverage of tax values, including the future of estate tax in light of a 2025 end date for current estate tax provisions
  • Important updates to electronic wills, estate planning documents, and the current rules on remote witnessing and notarization
  • Major new cases, including
    • Reynolds v. Van Den Steene, addressing the requirement of capacity in will contests
    • Herbst v. Board of Regents of the University of Colorado, involving the issue of standing in the management of a charitable trust
    • Reece Trust v. Reece, concerning the interpretation of a standard to distribute property for a wife’s support
    • In re Trust Under Deed of Garrison, demonstrating how trusts can be reformed by unanimous consent
Professors and students will benefit from:
  • Insightful authorship from three widely respected academics, Naomi R. Cahn, Alyssa DiRusso, and Susan Gary, whose expertise in WTE extends to related areas such as family law, charities, elder law, and tax. All are elected Fellows of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), the leading professional organization of trust and estates attorneys.
  • A consciously modern approach that balances landmark decisions, contemporary cases, and important timely developments in the law
  • Coverage, writing, and pedagogy that promotes learning outcomes and competencies
    • Knowledge and understanding of substantive and procedural WTE law
    • Legal analysis, reasoning, and problem-solving skills
    • A WTE lawyer's professional and ethical responsibilities 
  • Research and drafting exercises develop practice-based skills
  • Examples in the Appendix of how doctrine maps onto practice, as in will contest pleadings and probate filings
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Table of Contents
Summary of Contents

Table of Contents 
Preface 
Acknowledgments 

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Law and Practice of Trusts and Estates 
Chapter 2 Intestacy
Chapter 3 Creation of Wills
Chapter 4 Amendment and Revocation of Wills 
Chapter 5 Wills — Construction and Interpretation
Chapter 6 Will Contests 
Chapter 7 Nonprobate Transfers and Planning for Incapacity
Chapter 8 Family Protection 
Chapter 9 Creation of Trusts 
Chapter 10 Rights of Beneficiaries and Creditors in Trust Property 
Chapter 11 Fiduciary Duties and Modification and Termination of Trusts 
Chapter 12 Powers of Appointment 
Chapter 13 Professional Ethics in Trusts and Estates 
Chapter 14 Estate Administration and the Probate Process 
Chapter 15 Introduction to Federal Estate and Gift Taxes 

Glossary 
Table of Cases 
Index 
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Preface
Professor Materials
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About the authors
Naomi R. Cahn
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Law, Armistead M. Dobie Professor of Law, Co-Director, Family Law Center, University of Virginia School of Law

Naomi Cahn is an expert in family law, trusts and estates, feminist jurisprudence, reproductive technology, and aging and the law. Prior to joining the University of Virginia faculty in 2020, she taught at George Washington Law School, where she twice served as associate dean. She is the co-director of UVA Law’s Family Law Center.

Cahn is a co-author of casebooks in both family law and trusts and estates, and she has written numerous articles exploring the intersections among family law, trusts and estates, and feminist theory, as well as essays concerning the connections between gender and international law. In addition, she is the author or editor of books written for both academic and trade publishers. Her books include “Red Families v. Blue Families” (Oxford University Press, 2010, with Professor June Carbone): “Homeward Bound” (Oxford University Press, 2017, with Amy Ziettlow); and “Unequal Family Lives” (Cambridge University Press, 2018, co-edited with UVA professor Brad Wilcox and others).

Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and New Yorker, and she has appeared on numerous media outlets, including NPR and MSNBC. She is also a senior contributor to the Forbes Leadership Channel, for which she regularly writes posts on gender equity.

In 2017, Cahn won the Harry Krause Lifetime Achievement in Family Law Award from the University of Illinois College of Law. She has worked with the Uniform Law Commission as a reporter for two drafting committees. In addition to her work with the commission, Cahn is a member of the American Law Institute, an elected fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, editor of the ACTEC Law Journal and a member of the American Bar Foundation, among other commitments. She serves on the editorial board of the Family Court Review. In addition, she has chaired and been on the steering committee for some of the major Association of American Law Schools sections, such as Women in Legal Education, Family & Juvenile Law, Aging and Africa. From 2002-04, Cahn researched gender-based violence while on leave and living in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Prior to joining the faculty at GW Law, Cahn practiced with Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., and with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia.

Alyssa DiRusso
Whelan W. and Rosalie T. Palmer Professor of Law, Cumberland School of Law

Alyssa DiRusso specializes in trusts and estates, tax, and related areas of law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and serves on the Members Consultative Group for the Restatement of the Law of Charitable Nonprofit Organizations. She is also an elected Academic Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). DiRusso served as the associate editor of the peer-reviewed ACTEC Law Journal from 2018-20, and as editor in chief from 2020-22. She has been admitted to practice in Massachusetts (inactive) and Alabama, and has appeared before the United States Supreme Court.

Susan N. Gary
Professor Emerita, University of Oregon School of Law

Susan N. Gary, Professor Emerita and formerly Orlando J. and Marian H. Hollis Professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, received her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Columbia University. Before entering academia, she practiced with Mayer, Brown & Platt in Chicago, and with DeBandt, van Hecke & Lagae in Brussels. Professor Gary has taught trusts and estates, estate planning, estate and gift tax, nonprofit organizations, and an undergraduate course on law and families. She continues to teach trusts and estates. She has written and spoken about the regulation of charities, fiduciary duties including the prudent investor standard, stewardship trusts as a new form of business ownership, the definition of family for inheritance purposes, donor intent in connection with restricted charitable gifts, and the use of mediation to manage conflict in the estate planning context. She served as a trustee on the University’s Board of Trustees.

Professor Gary is an Academic Fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and served on the Council of the Real Property, Trust and Estate Section of the American Bar Association. She served as the Reporter for three projects of the Uniform Law Commission: the Uniform Electronic Wills Act, the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, and the Model Protection of Charitable Assets Act. She was a member of the steering committee of the Intentional Endowments Network and continues to serve on its Fiduciary Investment Committee. She has served on the Advisory Board of the NYU National Center on Philanthropy and the Law and has held leadership positions in three sections (trusts and estates, elder law, and nonprofits) of the Association of American Law Schools.

In Oregon, Professor Gary has been a member of the Oregon Law Commission and served as Reporter for its Probate Modernization Work Group. As a member of the Executive Committee of the Nonprofit Organizations Law Section of the Oregon State Bar she led a review of Oregon’s nonprofit corporation statutes that resulted in legislation revising the statutes. She served on the Executive Committee of the Estate Planning Section of the Oregon bar for nine years, including serving as its chair, and served as Editor of the Estate Planning Section’s newsletter for 15 years. Significant recent articles are “The Changing Landscape of Business Succession: How and Why Purpose Trusts Matter,” Ohio State Bus. L. J. (forthcoming 2024), “Best Interests in the Long Term: Fiduciary Duties and ESG Investing,” 90 Univ. of Colorado L. Rev. 731 (2019), and “The Oregon Stewardship Trust: A New Type of Purpose Trust that Enables Steward-Ownership of a Business,” 88 Univ. of Cincinnati L. Rev. 707 (f2019).
Product Information
Edition
Second Edition
Publication date
2025-02-01
Copyright Year
2025
Pages
632
Connected eBook with Study Center + Hardcover
9781543859164
Subject
Wills, Trusts, and Estates
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