Comments for Trusts & Estates

Comment on Cash For Compliance, Buying Obidience After Death by ‘Cash For Compliance, Buying Obedience After Death’ | Private Law Theory - Obligations, Property, Legal Theory

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:08:32 +0000

[…] William A Drennan, ‘RIP – A Financial Incentive to Protect Your Cadaver?’, 129 Penn State Law Review 667 (2025). Who wouldn’t want to control things, even after death? The chance that your surviving family will not obey your wishes after you die is exactly why you create a last will and testament. We all long to control where our money and property goes, but shouldn’t people also be concerned with what for some of us is most important of all – where our body goes? William A Drennan’s ‘RIP – A Financial Incentive to Protect Your Cadaver?’, suggests a clever way for individuals to control the disposition of their body through financial incentives … (more) […]

Comment on The New Uniform Parentage Act (2017) and Inheritance Law by Posthumous Reproduction: Legal Issues After a Spouse Dies – BatesonLaw

Posthumous Reproduction: Legal Issues After a Spouse Dies – BatesonLaw — Sun, 10 May 2026 10:39:28 +0000

[…] principle draws upon the presumption of parentage established by the UPA 2017, which now recognizes spouses in same‑sex relationships as parents […]

Comment on Less Freedom and More Equality by ‘Less Freedom and More Equality’ | Private Law Theory - Obligations, Property, Legal Theory

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:25:28 +0000

[…] Carla Spivack and Deborah Gordon, ‘Donative Freedom, Disrupted’, 91 Brooklyn Law Review (forthcoming, 2026), available at SSRN (5 February 2025). Donative freedom is the guiding principle of inheritance law. This is something that many of us who teach the subject tell students every semester, at the outset of a Wills and Trusts class. We keep repeating this truism because donative freedom turns out to be the answer to many of the questions we encounter, questions about why a certain rule exists or why a court case produces a certain result. What happens less frequently is sustained inquiry into the principle of donative freedom, its history, and the political economy supporting it … (more) […]

Comment on Leveraging Trust Law to Protect Child Influencers by February Wrap-Up: Taxes and Tech - Tucson Elder Law Attorney

February Wrap-Up: Taxes and Tech - Tucson Elder Law Attorney — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 14:32:54 +0000

[…] space is so new, there is a lack of regulation as to how their wealth is managed for them. Professor Naomi Cahn’s article explores how Trust law could be used to protect these children’s fortunes from their parents […]

Comment on A Life Insurance Tax Dodge Under Layers of Math by Andrew Granato Joins University of Texas Tax Faculty • TaxProf Blog

Andrew Granato Joins University of Texas Tax Faculty • TaxProf Blog — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:00:23 +0000

[…] A Matter of High Interest: How a Quiet Change to an Actuarial Assumption Turbocharges the Life Insurance Tax Shelter, 29 Conn. Ins. L. J. (2023) (reviewed by Kent Schenkel (New England) here) […]

Comment on Leveraging Trust Law to Protect Child Influencers by ‘Leveraging Trust Law to Protect Child Influencers’ | Private Law Theory - Obligations, Property, Legal Theory

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 18:13:52 +0000

[…] Naomi Cahn, ‘Trusting Remedies for the Child Influencer Space: Blocked Trust Accounts and Child Beneficiaries’, 17 Drexel Law Review 971 (2025). Professor Naomi Cahn’s recent article, ‘Trusting Remedies for the Child Influencer Space: Blocked Trust Accounts and Child Beneficiaries’, exists at the intersection of centuries-old legal doctrine and the technology-based influencer economy. The family influencer, parent-facilitated influencer, and kidfluencer spaces are thriving (from TikTok sponsorships to YouTube ads), and these are spaces in which federal protections for children are arguably inadequate. Instead, we must rely on limited oversight provided by a patchwork of state privacy and labor laws. A parental conflict of interest is inherent when a child is unable to give informed consent, and parents are overseeing a child who is also a profit center. As with child actors, the question becomes: who is overseeing or regulating the parents? … (more) […]

Comment on Small Gifts, Big Problems by ‘Small Gifts, Big Problems’ | Private Law Theory - Obligations, Property, Legal Theory

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 13:38:55 +0000

[…] Mark Glover, ‘Nominal Bequests’, 59 UC Davis Law Review 731 (2025). When I read the premise of Mark Glover’s terrific new article ‘Nominal Bequests’ – that some small-dollar gifts are problematic – I couldn’t help wonder whether it was a kind of stunt, like writing a novel without using the letter ‘e’. What could be wrong with testamentary gifts of trivial sums? Even if these bequests were somehow harmful, wouldn’t the payoff from regulating them pale in comparison to the costs? But Glover (who has been publishing up a storm) is waiting in the weeds with creative and thoughtful answers … (more) […]

Comment on A Proposed Framework for Privacy Rights After Death by Professor Anita L. Allen

Professor Anita L. Allen — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:39:20 +0000

Thank you for this thoughtful and thorough review of our article. We do indeed think it of interest to the trust and estates law community, as well as the privacy and publicity torts, data protection, and intellectual property communities.

Comment on A Proposed Framework for Privacy Rights After Death by ‘A Proposed Framework for Privacy Rights After Death’ | Private Law Theory - Obligations, Property, Legal Theory

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 14:43:22 +0000

[…] Anita L Allen and Jennifer E Rothman, ‘Postmortem Privacy’, 123 Michigan Law Review 285 (2024). Professors Allen and Rothman have written an excellent piece that addresses an issue of growing importance. While questions about privacy have always existed, technological changes that are occurring at a lightning-fast pace are creating demand for a consistent and clear legal framework. These technological changes include artificial intelligence, social media and email accounts, as well as the ubiquitousness of cameras and recording devices. This raises new questions regarding rights to a person’s name, image, voice, life history, beliefs, and identity after death … (more) […]

Comment on The Double-Edged Sword of Hunting Heirs by Amy Malek

Amy Malek — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 06:17:28 +0000

This is one of the best essays I have read. Unfortunately it is too late for me. My brother died intestate, and I was bombarded by heir hunters. A cousin had filed a determination of heirship which the companies picked up on. I was required to meet with my cousin regardless so the litigation attorney was not needed. The heir company claimed it was 20 percent co-heir and I could not live in the house without paying rent or fix anything without their permission! I might as well have been in North Korea! And my state had an Ad Litem looking for me – serving the exact same function as the heir finder – at a miniscule cost. Unfortunately it was a month after I signed. Run from these companies! You don’t need them for anything. I learned the hard way and am being depleted from an inheritance that was solely mine.