Major Reforms of the Property Restatement and the Uniform Probate Code
Major Reforms of the Property Restatement and the Uniform Probate Code

Author: John H. Langbein

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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In late 2011, the American Law Institute published the third and final volume of the Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and Other Donative Transfers. In March 2012, the Restatement's two reporters, Professors Lawrence W. Waggoner and John H. Langbein, presented the Joseph Trachtman Memorial Lecture at the annual meeting of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel in Miami Beach. Introducing the two lecturers, ACTEC President Mary Radford described them as “two icons in our field, [who] have had a hand in every major development in trust and estate law that has occurred over the past three decades...” In separate but coordinated talks, under the title “Restating and Renewing the Law of Donative Transfers,” Professors Waggoner and Langbein discussed some of the main themes of the new Restatement and of related Uniform Law Commission initiatives. Professor Langbein's lecture, revised for publication, appears here; Professor Waggoner's appears in the following Article.

Probate Law Reform and Nonprobate Transfers
Probate Law Reform and Nonprobate Transfers

Author: Grayson M.P McCouch

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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The advent of widespread, large-scale probate avoidance has added a new dimension to the project of probate law reform. When the Uniform Probate Code made its debut in 1969, its primary goal was to modernize traditional probate procedures and make them more uniform, flexible, and efficient. The Code's reforms were in part a response to the rise of will substitutes which offered a ready means of transferring property at death outside the probate system. In the intervening years, however, will substitutes have continued to proliferate, while traditional probate procedures have resisted comprehensive reform. The probate system has not become obsolete - it provides valuable safeguards in many cases and remains indispensable in dealing with residual assets and resolving disputes - but it now plays a relatively modest role in regulating deathtime wealth transfers. Today, wills operate side by side with an ever-expanding array of will substitutes, and it no longer makes sense for reformers to focus exclusively or even primarily on the probate system. Accordingly, they have taken the first tentative steps toward articulating a unified law of probate and nonprobate transfers. Ultimately, the success of the reformers' project will require a sustained and vigorous effort to maintain conceptual coherence and achieve practical implementation.