Article on Wills, Trusts, and Estates

J. William Gray, Jr. (Partner, Hunton & Williams LLP, Richmond) and Katherine E. Ramsey (Partner, Hunton & Williams LLP, Richmond) recently published their article entitled, Wills, Trusts, and Estates, 47 U. Rich. L. Rev. 343 (2012).  The introduction from the article is available below: 

The 2012 session of the Virginia General Assembly enacted wills, trusts, and estates legislation that (i) clarified the fiduciary responsibilities of a directed trustee, (ii) authorized individuals to create trusts for their own benefit and protect the trust assets from their creditors, (iii) permits the trustee of a grantor trust to pay the grantor's income tax without causing the trust assets to be included in the grantor's gross estate for federal estate tax purposes, (iv) allows a trustee to exercise a distribution power in favor of a beneficiary by adding the trust assets to another trust for the beneficiary's benefit, and (v) allows an out-of-state executor or testamentary trustee to deal with the decedent's Virginia real property without an ancillary administrator. In addition, Virginia's statutes relating to wills, trusts, estates, and fiduciaries were recodified, effective October 1, 2012. Eight other legislative enactments and six opinions of the Supreme Court of Virginia during the twelve months ended June 1, 2012, rounded out a busy year in this field.