Wills and Trusts

Change beneficiary designations; Lincoln Life and Annuity Company of New York v. Caswell; life insurance benficiary designation controls over will.

QDRO; Beneficiary designations; Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Savings and Investment Plan; divorced spouse retirement benefits; ERISA.

McGinley v. Bank of America, N.A.; trustee fiduciary duties may be modified by the trustor.

Gushwa v. Hunt; revoke will; some states require a revocatory act to be done on an original of the will.

Morse v. Sharkey; plain language; a court will give effect to the intent of the drafter of a will as indicated in the plain language of the will itself.

Johnson v. Johnson; trust agreement cannot eliminate trustee's fiduciary duties.

Subscribing witnesses have duty to be satisfied of testator sanity before they subscribe will. Contest; testamentary capacity; unsound mind.

Although will generally requires two attesting witnesses, document may be validated with clear and convincing evidence that decedent intended document to be his will. Notary public.

When federal and state statutes conflict, federal statute preempts state requirements. Employee benefit plan; Employee Retirement Income Security Act; pension; ERISA; preemption; slayer rule.

By statute omitted child who has been left without adequate provision for her proper maintenance, education, or advancement in life may claim provision from her parents estate. Preterrmitted heir.

If trustees of charity commit breach of trust, donor or his heirs have standing to enforce conditions placed on use of charitable donations. Charitable bequest.

Bean v. Ford, equitable adoption, de facto adoption.

Dougherty v. Rubenstein, monomania, must specifically relate to the questionable disposition.

Uchtorff v. Hanson, a remainder is contingent only if its existence depends on some dubious circumstance.

In re Martin B; If the governing instrument is silent, posthumous children conceived through in vitro fertilization with the consent of the parent are treated as part of their father's family for all purposes; en ventre sa mere.

Breeden v. Stone; An insane delusion invalidates a will only if the delusion materially affected the disposition in the will.

Estate of Gonzalez; Preprinted language in blank will forms may be used to establish the context of handwritten words.

Linthicum v. Rudi; Beneficiaries of a revocable living trust have no standing to challenge amendments to the trust, but may challenge the settlor's capacity through the guardianship statutes; inter vivos trust.

In re Estate of Kurrelmeyer; The scope of a power of attorney is determined by the principal's intent when the power was created; fiduciary duty.

Gray v. Gray; A child born after the execution of a will may not claim a share of the estate if the will left substantially all of the estate to the surviving parent, and the testator had another child when the will was drafted who was omitted from the will.

In re Riddell; Equitable deviation allows the court to modify the administrative or distributive provisions of a trust if circumstances not anticipated by the settlor mean that modification or deviation will further the purposes of the trust.

Howard v. Howard; A trustee owes a duty to the remainder beneficiaries as well as to the income beneficiary, but those duties must be carried out in light of any preference expressed in the trust instrument.

Brown v. Miller; transfers of assets to a revocable living trust are the same as transfers of assets outright to the person owning the trust.

Estate of Lakatosh; Undue influence is the existence of a confidential relationship, the person enjoying the relationship received the bulk of the estate, and that the decedent's intellect was weakened.

In re Estate of Herceg; A will may be reformed to reflect the intention of the testator if there is clear and convincing evidence that there was a mistake in drafting the will, and of what the intention of the testator was.

In re Estate of Rigsby; extra instruments offered for probate will be admitted only if it is readily apparent that the testator intended that the sheets together would constitute the last will and testament of the testator. Holographic will.

In re Gleeson's Will; a trustee cannot deal with trust property in his individual capacity. Absolute bar. No exception for good faith or fair dealing.

Ladysmith Rescue Squad, Inc. v. Newlin; for wills and trusts the testator's or settlor's intent prevails over the desires of the beneficiaries; intent is ascertained by the language the testator or settlor used in creating the will or trust.

Patterson v. Patterson; a trust may be revoked either by complying with a method for revocation set out in the trust or by any method manifesting clear and convincing evidence of the settlor's intent.