MEE Flashcards
Any property that does not pass by will upon the decedent’s death will be distributed according to the state’s applicable ____.
intestacy statutes
In intestate succession, if the decedent is survived by only a spouse (no descendants), the surviving spouse will ____.
inherit the entire estate
In intestate succession, if the decedent is survived by a spouse and descendants, the surviving spouse will ____ with the surviving descendants ____.
inherit one-half or one-third of the decedents estate; inheriting the rest
In intestate succession, if the decedent is not survived by a spouse, the decedent’s surviving descendants will ____.
inherit the entire estate equally
In intestate succession, if the decedent is not survived by a spouse or descendants, the decedents surviving parents will ____.
inherit the entire estate equally
In intestate succession, if there are no surviving parents, the descendants of the decedents parents will ____.
inherit the estate
Adopted children are entitled to ____ under intestacy laws, as ____.
receive the same share; biological children
Adoption in fact or by estoppel terminates the child’s right to ____.
inherit from here biological parents
Non-martial children may inherit from ____ so long as the facts establish a ____.
either parents; legal parent-child relationship (non-marital children inheriting from a father must first establish paternity)
Half-blood children (two people who share one parents, but not the other) are treated ____.
equally as whole-blood children
Gifts to heirs during a testator’s lifetime are not considered advancements on the heir’s intestate share of the estate unless:
(1) decedent declared his intent to make the gift an advancement in a contemporaneous writing
(2) heir acknowledged the gift to be an advancement in writing
What are the elements of a valid will?
(1) in writing
(2) signed by the testator
(3) signed by at least two disinterested witnesses
The interested witness ____ his inheritance unless ____ serves as valid witnesses to the will.
forfeits; two additional disinterested witnesses
A holographic will is a ____.
handwritten will that is not witnessed
In states that do recognize holographic wills, the holographic will is only valid if ____.
the testator signs it personally
No ____ are required to make a holographic will valid.
precise words
It must contain ____ to validly devise the property in a holographic will.
operative words legally sufficient
Integration of documents usually arises when ____.
pages or portions of will become separated
A document will be integrated into the will if:
(1) the testator intended the document to be part of the will
(2) the document was physically present at the time of the will’s execution
Incorporation by reference deals with the ____ into the will (rather than pages or portions of the original will).
incorporation of extrinsic documents
A document or writing may be incorporated into a will by reference if:
(1) testator intended to incorporate the document into the will
(2) document was in existence at the time the will was executed
(3) document is sufficiently described in the will
A will can be revoked by:
(1) subsequent written instrument that is executed for the sole purpose of revoking the prior will
(2) subsequent will containing a revocation clause or provisions that are inconsistent with those of the prior will
A will can be revoked if the testator (or another person in his presence and at his direction) ____, ____, ____, or ____ the will with the intent to revoke the will.
burns; tears; obliterates; destroys
Under the common law, words of cancellation are valid only if they ____.
come in physical contact with the words of the will
(words written over the original terms of the will)
Under the UPC, words of cancellation ____, but they must be somewhere on the will to validly revoke.
need not touch any of the words of the will
When marks of cancellation (putting a line through terms in the will) are found on a will known to last have been in the testator’s possession, a presumption arises that such marks were made by the testator with the intent to ____. The burden to overcome this presumption is on the ____.
revoke; party claiming that the devise has not been revoked
Under dependent relative revocation, the valid revocation of a will may be ignore if the will was revoked under the testator’s mistaken belief of law or fact that the testator could ____.
revive an earlier will or modify his disposition of property by a new will
If a beneficiary named in a will predates the testator, absent an alternate disposition of the devised specified by the testator, the devise ____ into the estate’s residue unless the jurisdiction’s anti-lapse statue ____.
lapses; preserves the devise for the beneficiary’s descendants
Under an anti-lapse statue, devises will vest in the descendants of the predeceased beneficiary if the predeceased beneficiary:
(1) a blood relative of the testator
(2) has descendent(s) who survive the testator
Under the doctrine of ____, if the subject matter of a specific devise is not in the estate at the time of the testator’s death, the devise to the beneficiary deems or fails.
ademption
In most jurisdiction today, a specific devise will deem only if the testator ____.
intended the devise to fail
If the testator did not intend for a specific devise to fail, the beneficiary is entitled to:
(1) any property in the testator’s estate (testator acquired as a replacement)
(2) monetary devise equal to the value of the specific devise
A person who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent is barred from ____.
claiming a share of the decedent’s estate as either an heir or a beneficiary under the decedent’s will
(slayer statutes)
The decedent’s estate is distributed as if the killer had ____.
predeceased of decedent
A beneficiary under a will can ____ his interest under a testator’s will causing the disclaimed property to ____.
disclaim or renounce; pass as if the disclaiming party predated the testator
A valid disclaimer must be:
(1) in writing and signed by the person making the disclaimer
(2) describe the interest being disclaimed sufficiently
(3) delivered or filed
Beneficiaries under wills are entitled only to the ____ of estate assets.
net value
The net value represents what remains of the decedent’s assets at death after the payments of ____.
debts, expenses, and taxes
If there are more claims against an estate from creditors than there are assets to cover all of the devises made under the will, the devises ____.
abate
Under the common law, a stock dividend constitutes a property interest that is separate from ____.
shares of stock received through a specific devise
Under the common law, the beneficiary of the underlying shares of stock does not ____, that were obtained through stock dividends.
receive the additional shares
Under the majority view, beneficiaries are entitled to ____ owned by the testator that were acquired as a result of stock splits or dividends.
additional shares
A class gift may ____ until the testator’s death.
increase or decrease in number
If a member of the class predeceases the testator, her share is ____.
split evenly among the remaining members the class
A child that is intentionally omitted from a will is ____.
not entitled to a share of the decedent’s estate
A pretermitted child is a child who is ____.
unintentionally omitted from a will
Pretermitted children are entitled to the share that they would have receivedhad the testator ____ so long as the testator ____.
received had the testator died intestate; did not intend to omit the child from his will
A will is invalid if the testator ____ when the will was executed.
lacked mental capacity
To prevail in a will contest for lack of capacity, the contestant must prove that the testator did not know or understand:
(1) nature and extend of his property
(2) persons who are the natural objects of his bounty
(3) disposition he was making of his property
A will is invalid if the testator executed the will while under ____.
undue influence
Undue influence occurs when a person ____.
exerts control and influence over the mind of the tester as to overcome the testator’s free will
To prevail in a will contest for undue influence, the contestant must prove that:
(1) testator was susceptible to undue influence
(2) wrongdoer had the opportunity to exert undue influence over the testator
(3) wrongdoer actively participated in drafting the will
(4) will evidences a result that appears to be the effect of undue influence
(Capacity)
Where the wrongdoer performs or threatens to perform a wrongful act that causes testator to make a transfer that the testator otherwise would not have made is ____.
duress
(Capacity)
Intentional misrepresentation, made knowingly and purposely to influence testator’s testamentary scheme causing testator to transfer his property in a way he otherwise would not have is ____.
fraud
What are the two types of fraud?
(a) inducement - factual misrepresentation to induce execution
(b) execution - misrepresentation of document being signed
