Fall 2022

TRUSTS and ESTATES

(L6294)

Professor Rapaczynski

Our basic textbook is R.H. Sitkoff and J. Dukeminier, Wills, Trusts, and Estates, 11th
ed. (“Casebook”). If you can buy it for less, you can also get by with the 10th edition;
you will have to find a couple of new cases, but the changes are overall minor.

You must read all the relevant assigned Casebook and other materials before each
class.

Additional statutory materials useful for the course -- Uniform Probate Code (UPC),
Uniform Trust Code (TC), and some New York Laws -- are posted on CourseWorks (as
well as available on the Internet). The relevant uniform laws are usually reproduced in
the Casebook, so the Code is mostly useful for context. But you should also read the
corresponding New York laws when they are mentioned in the assignments -- this is
required reading (not covered in the Casebook) and is very likely to play a role in doing
well on the exam.

I have also posted on CourseWorks some other materials that you might find helpful, and
may post additional required or recommended readings during the term.

I am not listing the assignments for each class in advance because I want us to have
enough flexibility not to adhere to a rigid schedule. While I will try to make sure that we
cover all the subjects essential to a basic course, we will proceed at a pace that is
comfortable for the class and allows an unfettered discussion of the materials.

I occasionally call on students to summarize the readings and solve various problems
related to the matters under discussion. Even when cold, calling is not intended as a form
of torture -- it should help both the person being called upon and the rest of the class to
become comfortable with the questions that arise in connection with the readings. To be
comfortable with this system, you should preferably be familiar with the whole chapter
under discussion and, at a minimum,stay about 40 Casebook pages ahead of the last
class. (If you read significantly ahead of time, it is also a good practice to review, if only
briefly, the relevant pages before each class.)
 Reading Assignments

1. For the first week, please read Chapter 1 of the Casebook (pp. 1- 64). The
Mankiw op-ed on CourseWorks is recommended but not required. We will
discuss in class only selected aspects of these materials (the cases for sure), but
they also contain essential background information and the vocabulary that you
will need to master.

2. During the first week please start reading Chapter 2 of the Casebook
(“Intestacy: An Estate Plan by Default,” pp. 63-142). We will certainly start
discussing it during the second week of classes. Together with this chapter, look
also at the New York statutes on intestate succession, the effect of adoption, and
inheritance of posthumously conceived children (all in CourseWorks).

3. After that we will follow the order of the Casebook and try to cover
everything until the end of Chapter 14, except for Chapter 11 (dealing with
charitable trusts, which I will most likely cover cursorily in my lectures, but
which will not be included in the materials tested on the exam).

4. We will also cover some problems in taxation (Chapter 15). But these are very
complex issues and may call for a separate course, so I will treat them
pervasively and try to sensitize you to the most important issues of taxation by
weaving them into our discussions of other matters.

5. With Chapter 3, please read the New York statutes on will formalities, purging
of witnesses, holographic wills, revocation of wills, and revival of revoked wills
(all posted on CourseWorks). Look also at the self-proving affidavit in the
Model Documents section of the CoursWorks.

6. With Chapter 5, please read the New York antilapse statute (CourseWorks).

7. With Chapter 8, please skim the New York statute on the spousal right of
election (EPTL §5.11)