The Law of Succession: Wills, Trusts, and Estates

This is a completely new trusts and estates casebook and takes a new approach in its material and structure. The book includes a toolbox section, introducing students early on to the basics of wills, trusts, powers, joint tenancies, life insurance, and miscellaneous other forms.

Thus, this book organizes material around planning properly, rather than around litigation. The book also covers barriers to succession, such as the rule against perpetuities, slayer statutes, revocation, and litigation (mental capacity, no-contest clauses, and the like).

Rather than including long and lightly edited cases, this book utilizes several case squibs that illustrate different factual scenarios for each legal issue followed by the court's decision and reasoning. The book also includes many statutes with lengthy analyses of the different types of statutes using the UPC as the primary model.

The author also includes practice points, tax tips, and technology traps throughout the entire book. There are numerous problems throughout the materials, with the answers located at the back of the book.