This article discusses judicial developments relating to the Texas law of intestacy, wills, estate administration, trusts, and other estate planning matters. The article covers approximately twenty cases that were reported after the cut-off date for Case Law Update, in South Texas College of...

An estate planner must always be on guard when drafting instruments which may supply incentive for someone to contest a will. Anytime an individual would take more through intestacy or under a prior will, the potential for a will contest exists, especially if the estate is large. Although will...

The Legal Education Committee of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel has had extensive discussions about the increasing need for law schools to provide students with opportunities to engage in skills-related or experiential learning courses. Many Committee members observed that, as...

For hundreds of years, we have viewed property as falling into two major categories – personal property and real property. Personal property is traditionally further divided into tangible personal property, meaning items you can see or hold, and intangible personal property, meaning items that...

Many people think that the “Lady Bird” deed became known as such because President Johnson once used this type of deed to transfer property to his wife, “Lady Bird” Johnson. In reality, the first Lady Bird deed was drafted by Florida attorney Jerome Ira Solkoff around 1982, nearly ten...

This article discusses judicial developments relating to the Texas law of intestacy, wills, estate administration, trusts, and other estate planning matters. The article covers over thirty cases that were reported after the cut-off date for Case Law Update, in South Texas College of Law, Wills &...

The universe of digital assets is vast, including email accounts, picture and video storage sites, social networking sites, domain names, games and related sites; professional sites and backups; as well as online banking and business accounts. Moreover, digital assets go beyond online accounts...

In today’s highly competitive business environment, there are numerous options for customers to make the most of their travel and spending habits, especially if they are loyal to particular providers. Airlines have created programs in which frequent flyers accumulate, “miles,” or,...

Only two states (Oklahoma and Idaho) have statutes that directly address digital assets in a probate context - and then only in the administration phase. Few estate planners provide digital asset planning for their clients, which may lead to significant problems as these assets are increasingly...