The untimely death of Michael Jackson this past June presents an opportunity to reassess certain thorny estate tax issues that may arise when a celebrity dies owning valuable intellectual property. Elsewhere we have debated hypothetical, tax-motivated changes to state laws relating to postmortem...

This article examines the changes that philanthropist Brooke Russell Astor made to her will – or, more accurately, the changes that Mrs. Astor purportedly made to her will – before her death in 2007. Anthony Marshall, the 85-year old son of Brooke Astor, and lawyer Francis X. Morrissey, who...

The focus of this article is the federal estate and gift tax treatment of copyright termination rights. The right of a creative individual to terminate prior copyright transfers serves to protect against economic exploitation. Once a copyright’s value has been established in the marketplace,...

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...

California recently passed legislation that creates retroactive, descendible rights of publicity. The New York State Assembly is poised to enact similar legislation. Legal recognition of postmortem rights of publicity permits a decedent's named beneficiaries or heirs to control (and financially...

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...