Wills

Question 1

Inteste succession?

Answer 1

explains how property is divided if a person dies without a will

Two schemes:

1. pEr capita at each generation
2. Per capita with representation

Question 2

Per capita at each generation

Answer 2

APPLIES TO CHILDREN IF DECEDENTS SPOUSE AND PARENTS ARE DEAD

1. Find the generation where there are living issue
2. Give one share for each such living issue and one share for each person in that generation who predeceased the decedent but left issue surviving
3. Combine the shares belonging to the dead people and distribute them equally at the next generational level

Question 3

Per capita with representation (per stripes)

Answer 3

1. Find the generation where there are living issue
2. Give one share for each such living issue and one share for each person in that generation who predeceased the decedent but left issue surviving
3. Pass each dead persons share to their issue

Question 4

If no spouse and no children, two ways to divide

Answer 4

consanguinity
parentelic

Question 5

Consanguinity

Answer 5

Heirship determined by degree of relationship

all persons of the same degree of relation to decedent take equal shares

Question 6

parentelic

Answer 6

descendants of the descendants parents take to the exclusion of descendants of the descendants grandparents

so, a niece would be an heir but an uncle wold not

Question 7

Child?

Answer 7

includes adoptive children, wedlock children, and half blood but NOT step

Question 8

Advancements

Answer 8

1. When decedent dies without a will but gave child a git during lifetime
2. Types
   1. Common Law
      2. majority law
   2. Ademption

Question 9

Common law advancement?

Answer 9

when it was to a child, treated as down payment on inheritance

Question 10

Majority law advancement?

Answer 10

Presumed to be a gift and ignore it in computing inheritance

UNLESS clear it was meant as a down payment

Question 11

Ademption by satisfaction

Answer 11

UPC, applies when there is a will

Lifetime gift is not treated as a downpayment unless

1. The will says so
2. Testator declares it in contemporaneous writing
3. Devisee acknowledges in writing

Question 12

General rule Requirements to execute a valid will

Answer 12

Will need to be in writing, signed by testator, and witnessed by two witnesses.

Testator must be 18+, intend for it to be his will, and any mark with intent will count as sig.

Question 13

Requirements for a valid holographic will

Answer 13

1. Unwitnessed will
2. Signed
3. MAterial portions are in your hand writing

Question 14

Dispensing power

Answer 14

Court can validate a will so long as there is clear and convincing evidence decedent intended document to be her will

Question 15

Incorporation by reference

Answer 15

A writing that is not valid as a will may be incorporated by reference into a will, if the will:

1. Manifests an intent to incorporate
2. writing is identifiable
3. must be executed at the same time as the will

UPC allows testator to dispose of property with one memo regardless of when it made

Question 16

Revocation through physical act

Answer 16

Mist be done with intent to revoke

Testator or someone acting in their direction and in his conscious presence

Question 17

Dependent relative revocation

Answer 17

First will won’t be revoked if second will is invalid

if a testator revokes a will based on a mistaken assumption of law or fact, revocation is ineffective

Question 18

Revocation by divorce

Answer 18

Revokes a gift in favor of a spouse

divorce needs to actually happen

Question 19

When a gift fails because beneficiary is not alive

Answer 19

1. General rule
   1. if a beneficiary does not survive tester, the gift will lapse or fail and all into the ridisuary
2. However, all states have antilapse statutes which keep it in the family
3. if beneficiary was related by blood within a certain degree and had issue who survived, the gift is saved and the issue will take it

Question 20

Slayer statutes

Answer 20

1. Individual who feloniously and intentionally kills decent to is convicting of harming them forfeits all benefits to estate

Question 21

Gift fails because the specific property no longer exists

Answer 21

The gift fails, but, if the testator replaced the property or there were insurance proceeds then the beneficiary will receive these

Question 22

Disclaimers

Answer 22

1. Property that a beneficiary did not want
2. will pass as if the person disclaiming dies before testator

Question 23

Attachment

Answer 23

1. When assets ar insufficient to satisfy gifts then the gifts will be reduced in order:
   1. intestate property
   2. residuary gifts
   3. general gifts
   4. specific gifts

Question 24

When capacity or undue influence are tested best answer is that testator did have capacity and there was not undue influence

Question 25

Mental capacity

Answer 25

1. Mental capacity
   1. testator must have capacity to execute a will
   2. burden is on the contestant
   3. elements
   1. Knows the nature and extent of his property
   2. the persons who are of the testators bounty
   3. The nature of the instrument
   4. the disposition that is being made

Question 26

Undue influence

Answer 26

1. present when the wrongdoer exerts influence that it overcomes the testators free will and causes the testator to make a fist he would not have.
   2. SODA
   1. Susceptible to undue influence
   2. Opportunity to exert influence
   3. Disposition to exert such influence
   4. Appears to be a product of such influence

Question 27

Permitted child statute

Answer 27

Permits children of a testator under certain circumstances to claim a share of the estate even if they omitted from the will.