PROPERTY AND WEALTH
                  Wills, Trusts, and Estates
Professor Jacob
Spring 1999
Syllabus

Backround Information
This course investigates the law of intestate succession and of wills, with the constriants imposed for the protection of family members and to vindicate other social purposes; the law of trusts, both private and charaitableâ and the law of future interests.  Four (4) credit hours: 56 class hours.

Federal Estate and Gift Tax (2) This course provides an intensive introduction to federal estate and gift tax laws.  Through the analysis of problem materials that are distributed during the semester, students study such concepts as gross estate, taxable gifts, valuation, the marital deduction, transfers with retained interests and taxation of insurance.  Prerequisite: Wills, Trusts, And Estates.

 The above  is from the most recent Hofstra catalog.  Some other courses in the catalog that would be relevant to any full discussion here are (i) Aging and the Law, (ii) ERISA and Pension Rights, (iii) Estate Planning.  What follows may be thought of as my commentary on the two entries from the catalog.

1.  Wills, Trusts, and Estates is one of the traditional core-courses.  It is also a course that takes as its field one which, after almost four generations in which there seemed to be little or no change, is suffering from changes so rapid as to amount to dislocation.  As a result, although what we do will be important, useful and reflected on the bar exam, we will hardly be able to treat here items that will be of increasing importance during the years of your practice.

        We will learn how to think about a general estate plan, how to handle the
        affairs of a decedent, in court and out, how to draft and to supervise the
        execution of a will and some of the reasons for the relatively strict
        (and restrictive)rules of intepretations.

        We will look at family relations in connection with the death of a family member,
        including the compromise between family assurances and autonomy of
        testamentary desire.

        We will also learn something of the safe ways to avoid a will and something about
        the circumstances in which this makes sense.

        Finally, we will have an opportunity to get some practice and even some technical
        proficiency in the use of the special language used in wills and the way to work
        with the Rule against Perpetuities.

        We will get an introduction to trusts, some policies regarding their drafting and
        use and the structure of fiduciary duties.  We will have almost no time to look at
        trusts and (corporate) trustees as institutions, although we will take a very fleeting
        look at the charitable or non-profit trust.

        What have I just said?  If you care to look, you should be able to see that I have
        shown the way in which this course treats-
            (1) wills,
            (2) trusts, and
            (3) estates in the double sense of
                    (a) administering the affairs and property of a decedent and advising her
                    or his survivors and
                    (b) the estate system, whose dreaded RAP you will find to be equipped
                    with more bark than bite.

        On the other hand, you will not find many of the very important aspects of the
        way the law affects plans for the disposition of property.

        In the first place, the course is an adequate one only for treating a person of
        modest means.  Even then, it is very inadequate for salaried persons, almost
        totally dependent on a pension; and even the self-employed business person or
        professional will almost certainly have set up a Keough and I.R.A.âs..

        The fact is that the three most important assets for the average  person are
            (1) the house,
            (2) insurance, and
            (3) the pension (from OASI, a private pension, IRA and Keough benefits).

        Typically the will has nothing to do with any one of these.  Moreover, the law
        relating to benefits and pension plans is only to a degree a matter of disposing of
        property on death; it is primarily compensation earned during a working life and
        the management and payout of funds that are set aside (or should be) then for
        oneâs later years, involving many questions of employment law and ERISA law.

        And of course the uses of estate planning as they emerge in this program do not
        deal with current pension rights (which must affect every life decision) or with
        planning for the financial and health rigors of old age.

        Finally, estate and gift tax are reciprocally intertwined with WTE, for the latter is
        shaped by concern for the former, and the former is designed to fit the contours of
        WTE so as to raise the expected revenue.   But, in any undertaking, you have to
        begin somewhere and that means you have to begin with a partial treatment of a
        subject.  This is particularly true in the case of Estate & Gift Tax in relation to the
        work in this course where we postpone any detailed treatment of tax in favor of
        learning the older law of estates.

        One justification for that decision is that in the case of many small estates, tax is a
        matter of very  little importance.  A substantial estate practice can be undertaken
        with a handful of rules of thumb designed to avoid problems with EGT

            Thus, the course will help you to prepare for the bar exam, learn basic will and
            trust drafting technique and prepare for a generalistâs career with relatively
            small estate or, if you go on to take EGT, estates in general.  And begin to
            think about some of these problems.
 

Syllabus