Margaret Turano
Trusts and Estates
Fall 2015
Test:
50% essay – 10 % is a new statute
Multiple choice – 1 point each – 10 to 15
True/False – some asking for short explanation
3 hours
Intestacy
What does it mean to die intestate?
Rule: Dying intestate means to die without a will. There are two ways of distributing an intestate’s estate: per stirpes and by representation. New York is by representation. A person who receives intestate is called a distributee.
How is an intestate decedent’s estate distributed?
Rule: 4-1.1
Decedent has $1,050,000 estate… If he is…
Survived by a spouse and his three issue?
Spouse gets $50,000 + 500,000.
Kids split the $500,000 three ways (by rep).
Survived by just his kids?
Kids split whole thing three ways.
Survived by his spouse and his spouse’s children who are not his children?
All to his spouse.
Survived by his father and wife?
Wife gets it all.
Survived by his brother and sister?
Brother and sister split it half-half – “the whole to the issue of the parents, by representation”
Survived by his sister’s niece and his brother?
Brother and niece split – *niece is an issue of the grandparents
Survived by his parents and two brothers?
His parents get it all.
Survived by his maternal grandmother and a paternal first cousin?
Half to his grandmother and half to the paternal first cousin.
Survived by his maternal first cousin once removed and his paternal first cousin.
Paternal first cousin gets it all.
Survived by his three paternal first cousins once removed and his maternal cousin once removed as well as a maternal cousin twice removed?
Paternal cousins once removed get 500/3 each. Maternal cousin once removed gets 500. (Twice removed maternal cousin gets nothing.)
Rationale: To extend beyond first cousins once removed would be extremely complicated for administrators. It is probable that many decedents would not even know these relatives. We would like to avoid having too many “laughing heirs”
Disqualification of Spouse and Parent
Spouse
Rule: A spouse loses…
Parents
What is a parent who abandoned his child entitled to take under intestate?
Rule: 4-1.2 – She is entitled to nothing! BUT, she is treated as having predeceased him – this means that his siblings (her issue) can still receive their intestate shares.
Non-marital children
What if a decedent had a child out of wedlock – how does that child take under intestacy?
Rule: 4-1.2 – Same as an
ch die before Matt then Paul would take the entire estate.
Rationale – If a testator has taken the time to name residuary beneficiaries, he probably does not want his estate to go to intestacy.
Anti-Lapse
What happens when the ineffective beneficiary was a sibling or an issue?
Rule: 3-3.3 Disposition to issue or brothers or sisters of testator not to lapse; application to class dispositions
– Dispositions to siblings and issue do not lapse. They vest in the issue of the ineffective sibling or issue, by representation.
– Language of “provided my brother Mike survives me” de-triggers this statute.
– If testator makes a class gift to his “brothers and sisters” and his sister Beatrice is dead at the time he executes this will, then when he dies, Beatrice’s issue will NOT share in their mother’s bequest. But, if testator makes class gift to his “issue” or language of similar import (i.e. children, grandchildren) and his son John is dead when he executed the will, John’s children will still inherit his portion of the bequest, because issue is by definition a multi-generational class
