Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog

Second Edition of Stake’s Trusts and Estates Now Available

West Academic Publishing recently released Trusts and Estates, 2nd Edition by Jeffrey Evans Stake, Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Here is the publisher's description of the book:

Stake’s Trusts and Estates is designed to be a teacher-friendly casebook for a basic course in trusts and estates. What is teacher friendly about it? First the book is not a hornbook or treatise and does not require the teacher to remember a lot of note material that is unimportant to teaching basic principles. It also includes portions of the UPC in the book rather than requiring another book for statutory materials, which is student-friendly as well. Second, it raises policy questions that students find interesting because the questions engage them as if they will be in a position to influence their state’s law on trusts and estates. Concerning social policy, this casebook does not assume that the goal of following the decedent's intent overrides other fairness concerns or efficiency. Third, it presents examples and problems that can be used to dig into the rules or can be ignored as the teacher sees fit. Fourth, the cases are interesting as stories of what can go wrong in families and what can go wrong in trust and estate practice. Stake's book can be covered in a 3-hour course or, by closer analysis of cases and problems, expanded to fill a 4-hour course. Fifth and finally, an extensive set of 1000 PowerPoint slides is available to casebook adopters. Most of the slides are only text, but a few of the slides include graphics or suggestions for audio or video clips that fit with the material.

Hirsch & McGovern, California Probate Code Annotated (2023 edition) released

Here is the publisher's description of the newest book by Adam J Hirsch and William M. McGovern, Jr.:

Hirsch & McGovern California Probate Code Annotated, 2023 ed. (California Desktop Codes) is your comprehensive resource for probate law and estate planning in California. It provides you with the complete text of the California Probate Code, related state and federal statutes, and rules of court regarding estate planning and probate.

This volume contains:

• Authoritative commentary, annotations, and analysis of leading cases
• Law Revision Commission editorial notes that provide additional guidance in the construction and application of particular sections
• References to Witkin’s Summary of California Law, 10th which direct you toward further research
• A table of Judicial Council forms to help you identify forms to be used in conjunction with the statutes and rules
• A table of cases illustrating the cases discussed in the author’s commentary
• A table of affected sections indicating recent modifications
• Underlining to indicate additions or changes in statutes
• Asterisks to indicate deletions

Wills, Trusts, and Estates: A Contemporary Approach, 2nd Edition to be released in May

The following is from a West Academic announcement:

Lloyd Bonfield, New York Law School Joanna L. Grossman, SMU Dedman School of Law William P. LaPiana, New York Law School

Wills, Trusts, and Estates: A Contemporary Approach, 2nd Edition will be published in May and available for your Fall 2023 course.

About the Casebook: This casebook is designed to present in a comprehensive yet streamlined fashion the law of Wills, Trusts, and Future Interests to 21st–century law students. It assists the student in developing an understanding of the core legal concepts critical to a grasp of wills, trusts and future interests in a novel format that is clear and easy to understand, while maintaining the intellectual rigor of the subject. The book covers the standard topics, but is organized in an innovative fashion. It begins with an estate planning problem which introduces the student to the craft of the practitioner, providing context for the introduction of substantive law. It then presents the law of wills law by reference to the law governing the testator, the document and the property. Attention is given to non-probate transfers, and in particular, the law of trusts, private and charitable. A simple will, model trust instrument and a pourover will is provided. These documents can be introduced in Chapter 2 – in a general discussion of estate planning – or can be used in Chapter 3 and Chapter 8 when the substantive discussion focuses on wills and then trusts. The book concludes with a comprehensive look at future interests and the rule against perpetuities. As with other books in the Interactive Casebook Series, it challenges students to think about issues raised by the cases as they are considered in the opinion through the use of text boxes. The accompanying electronic version allows students immediate access to the full text of cited cases, statutes, articles, and other relevant materials. (Read more)

Selected Statutes on Trusts and Estates -- New Edition Available

Mark L. Ascher and Grayson M.P. McCouch recently published the 2023 edition of their Selected Statutes on Trusts and Estates. Here is the publisher's description of the book:

This casebook statutory supplement meets the needs of students in basic and advanced courses on wills, trusts, decedents' estates, fiduciary administration, and future interests, providing a compendium of essential uniform act provisions and official comments. It covers a wide range of topics, including: intestacy; wills; probate administration; nonprobate transfers; disclaimers; principal and income; prudent investments; perpetuities; trusts (including trust decanting and directed trusts); powers of appointment; and powers of attorney.

Book on Wills, Trusts, and Estates: A Contemporary Approach

Lloyd Bonfield, Joanna L. Grossman, and William P. LaPiana recently published a Book entitled, Wills, Trusts, and Estates: A Contemporary Approach, West Academic (2019).  Provided below is a summary of the book.

This casebook is designed to present in a comprehensive yet streamlined fashion the law of Wills, Trusts, and Future Interests to 21st–century law students. It assists the student in developing an understanding of the core legal concepts critical to a grasp of wills, trusts and future interests in a novel format that is clear and easy to understand, while maintaining the intellectual rigor of the subject. The book covers the standard topics, but is organized in an innovative fashion. It begins with an estate planning problem which introduces the student to the craft of the practitioner, providing context for the introduction of substantive law. It then presents the law of wills law by reference to the law governing the testator, the document and the property. Attention is given to non-probate transfers, and in particular, the law of trusts, private and charitable. A model trust instrument is also provided. It concludes with a comprehensive look at future interests and the rule against perpetuities. As with other books in the Interactive Casebook Series, it challenges students to think about issues raised by the cases as they are considered in the opinion through the use of text boxes. The accompanying electronic version allows students immediate access to the full text of cited cases, statutes, articles, and other relevant materials.

Book on Texas Estate Planning Statutes with Commentary: 2019-2021 Edition

Gerry W. Beyer recently published a book entitled, Texas Estate Planning Statutes with Commentary: 2019-2021 Edition, (2019). Provided below is a summary of the book.

Texas Estate Planning Statutes with Commentary: 2019-2021 Edition is a compilation of Texas statutes that are significant to law school and paralegal courses related to estate planning, such as wills and estates, trusts, estate administration, probate, elder law, and guardianship. Changes made by the 2019 Texas Legislature are printed in red-lined format to make the revisions easy for the reader to locate. Many sections include carefully written commentary entitled Statutes in Context. These annotations provide background information, explanations, examples, and citations to key cases, which will assist the reader in identifying the significance of the statutes and how they operate.

Book on Cases and Materials on Gratuitous Transfers, Wills, Trusts, Gifts, Future Interests, and Taxation

Mark L. Asher and Grayson MP McCouch recently published a Book entitled, Cases and Materials on Gratuitous Transfers, Wills, Trusts, Gifts, Future Interests, and Taxation (West Academic Publishing, 7th ed., 2018). Provided below is a brief summary of the book.

The new edition of Gratuitous Transfers incorporates developments in the law of wills, trusts and estates since 2013, including a new principal case involving beneficiary consent to trust accounting. The text also includes references to case law and literature relating to same-sex marriage, revocation by divorce, reformation of wills, directed trusts, trust decanting, and fiduciary access to digital assets, as well as statutory references to recent amendments to the Uniform Probate Code and Uniform Trust Code. The coverage has been thoroughly updated while maintaining continuity of organization and general approach with previous editions.

Book on Estates, Future Interests and Powers of Appointment in a Nutshell

Thomas P. Gallanis published a book entitled, Estates, Future Interests and Powers of Appointment in a Nutshell (West Academic Publishing, 6th ed., 2018). Provided below is a description of the book:

This comprehensive guide provides an overview of the rules and principles of estates and future interests, including concurrent estates, marital estates (including the modern elective share), and powers of appointment. It includes new innovations from the Restatement 3d of Property, modernizing the law of future interests and dramatically changing the Rule Against Perpetuities. With respect to powers of appointment, the book incorporates the clarifications and modernizations of the law in the Restatement 3d of Property and the Uniform Powers of Appointment Act (2013, with subsequent amendments). The book also has exercises, with answers at the back. Valuable for students in first-year Property and upper-year courses in Trusts and Estates.

Book on Wills, Trusts, and Estates, Tenth Edition

Robert H. Sitkoff and the late Jesse Dukeminier recently published a book entitled Wills, Trusts, and Estates, Tenth Edition. This updated edition features a new section on digital wills, trust decanting, as well as updated and expanded coverage relating to wealth and income inequality.

Special thanks to Rachael Wisner for bringing this article to my attention.

Wills Road Map: Practical Considerations in Will Drafting, 3rd ed.

Steve R. Akers, Bernard E. Jones, & R. J. Watts, II, with 3rd edition update by Casey A. Barthel, recently published a book entitled, Wills Road Map: Practical Considerations in Will Drafting, 3rd ed. (2018). Provided below is some information about the book:

Wills Road Map: Practical Considerations in Will Drafting began life as the well-known paper “Anatomy of a Will” from the TexasBarCLE seminar “Building Blocks of Wills, Estates and Probate.” Intended for both general practitioners who occasionally prepare wills for their existing clients as well as for experienced estate planning attorneys, Wills Road Map brings together legal concepts from wills, probate, and trust law to provide expert guidance in properly assembling a will.

Featuring a basic discussion of estate tax planning, with a focus on various state law issues, Wills Road Map also addresses principles that can affect the will beyond the language of the will itself. Other subjects include doctrines affecting the validity of the will and a review of the legal significance and effect of numerous specific wills provisions.

The new third edition of Wills Road Map reflects legislative changes from the regular session of the Eighty-fifth Legislature, as well as case law changes. Other updates include a new discussion about digital assets and revised sample wills. Finally, the third edition adds the following:

• Client intake questionnaires
• Self-proving affidavits
• Access to over 20 TexasBarCLE articles of interest in the digital download
• A will execution ceremony checklist

The Wills Road Map: Practical Considerations in Will Drafting Digital Download is included with purchase and may also be purchased separately. The digital download contains the entire book as a hyperlinked and word-searchable PDF file. All tables of contents, cross-references, and indexes are linked to substantive text within the file. Texas and federal case and statute citations are linked to online versions in the Casemaker Web Library.