The word “trust” has multiple meanings. In everyday speech, it refers to a feeling of confidence associated with integrity, such as trusting that a friend will keep a secret. In the financial context, some law students, lawyers and lucky individuals also understand that a trust is a...

Individuals have executed wills the same way for centuries. But over time, traditional traditional requirements have relaxed. This Article makes two principal claims, both of which disrupt fundamental assumptions about the purposes and functions of wills formalities. First, the traditional...

In this article the authors discuss the alleged gift tax deficiency case against media mogul Sumner Redstone. The IRS argues that Mr. Redstone made a taxable gift in 1972 when, in connection with the settlement of an intrafamily dispute, he transferred shares of a family-owned business to trusts...

In this article, Professor Crawford discusses the United States Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in the estate tax case of United States v. Windsor. The cases involves the constitutionality of the provision of Defense of Marriage Act which defines marriage for federal purposes as a union...

This essay endeavors to document and to preserve the story of the origins of the book Taxing America (NYU Press 1997) edited by Karen B. Brown and Mary Louise Fellows. The publication of that text was a key milestone in the development of critical tax theory as an intellectual discipline. By...

We previously suggested that post-death publicity rights could be excluded from the decedent's estate for tax purposes if state legislation precluded the decedent from exercising post-death control. In other words, if state legislation designated who would hold these rights after the decedent's...

In this short essay I make 10 modest suggestions for bringing Trusts & Estates to the front and center of American legal education. Many students take the basic school T&E course with some sense that it is part of a well-rounded legal education, but the field has a reputation for being staid,...

Intrafamilial arrangements labeled as loans have long invited special scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. In some cases, the IRS has successfully established that the arrangement was not a loan but another type of transfer, such as a gift. In the wake of several IRS victories in cases...

This article explores the gift tax consequences of an exchange of promissory notes between family members when interest rates have dropped from when the original or old note was issue to the present time when the new note is issued. More specifically, the scenario contemplated involves two...