Decedents' Estates: Cases and Materials

This new casebook consists of traditional cases, statutes, and materials related to courses associated with wills, trusts, and estates. Particular attention has been directed towards international statutes and their contrast with American statutory and common law; web sites offering forms and additional resources; and the changing nature of federal and state tax considerations. The tax considerations appear throughout the casebook, but professors are offered the opportunity of either addressing taxation in the course or separating it so that it may be addressed in other courses. The authors' aim is to provide professors and students with a course of study that is orderly and engaging. To meet this goal, each chapter is preceded by a Tool Bar which indexes the subjects to be discussed. This approach, similar to that found on a computer, offers professors an opportunity for an easy summary or introduction and gives students a visual grasp of the totality of the chapter. Because decedents estates involve families, their creation, dissolution, and interaction, the casebook has a distinctive familial approach, offering a classic 'death in the family' as a starting point and ending with planning for incapacity and the decisions and assistance programs accompanying dependency. The estates of persons in community-property jurisdictions have valuable lessons to share with persons in common-law states and there are multiple examples of these interactions in cases and statutes throughout the book.