The Law of Trusts
Browne C. Lewis, Cleveland State University Cleveland Marshall College of Law
Copyright Year: 2013
Publisher: CALI's eLangdell® Press
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Attribution-ShareAlike
CC BY-SA
Reviews
The book covers a wide-variety of different topics pertaining to trusts and does a great job of organizing them into a user-friendly order. One topic I would like to see covered is pet trusts and other specialty trusts as information on these can... read more
The book covers a wide-variety of different topics pertaining to trusts and does a great job of organizing them into a user-friendly order. One topic I would like to see covered is pet trusts and other specialty trusts as information on these can be difficult to find, but they are great topics to teach in courses. Also, information on different trustee options. The book discusses trustee duties, but a larger discussion on differences between private and professional trustees and pros/cons of different options might be helpful.
The book is accurate in it's descriptions and is well written and organized.
The topics covered in this book are vitally important and relevant to the teaching of any estate, trust, planning course in the paralegal department or in a law school.
The organization of the book seems to be easy to understand and I particularly enjoy that there are a lot of specific case examples which help to cement the ideas in the reader's head, but there need to be some additional "road map" information (headings, subheadings, outlines etc.) which keep the reader on track and make it clear where the information you are learning about now is in relation to the other topics and the bigger picture.
The formatting and language in the book seems consistent.
I wish there were additional subheadings or graphs to break up the text within the chapters. It is a bit difficult for the reader to follow the flow when there are so few subheadings and clear notifications of the topics. In addition, a think if each chapter had a short outline of the topics to be discussed, it would be very helpful for the reader.
See the above comments on subheadings and outline formats for individual chapters. These chapters are very long and it would be easy for the reader to get lost in the small ideas and not see the bigger picture. With some additional roadmaps for the information it would be exponentially more organized and easier to understand and take in.
It would be preferable if there was navigation between the chapters in the PDF versions. Maybe an overview of each chapter with clickable links to take you to that section without scrolling requirements.
The text did not contain noticeable grammatical errors and was well written for the reader.
This text is culturally sensitive and is not offensive.
With some slight organizational changes this book could be a very good teaching resource which would teach difficult topics to students with great success.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - The Capacity to Create a Testamentary Trust
- 1.1. Parties Involved in a Trust Arrangement
- 1.2. Testamentary Capacity
Chapter 2 - Creation of a Private Trust
- 1.2 Intent to Create a Trust
- 2.2 Requirement of Trust Property
- Edwards v. Edwards
- 2.3 Necessity of Trust Beneficiaries
Chapter 3 - Categories of Private Trusts
- 3.1. Private Expressed Trusts
- 3.2. Trusts Created By Operation of Law
Chapter 4 - Discretionary and Support and the Rights of the Beneficiary'sCreditors
- 4.1 Discretionary Trusts
- 4.2. Support Trust
Chapter 5 - Spendthrift Trusts and Creditors
- 5.1 Expressed Spendthrift Trust
- 5.2 Implied Spendthrift Trust
- 5.3 Creditors
Chapter 6 - Modification and Termination of Trusts
- 6.1 Termination
- 6.2 Claflin and Material Purpose
- 6.3 Deviation and Changed Circumstances
- 6.4 Removal of the Trustee
Chapter 7 - Creation and Modification of Charitable Trusts
- 7.1 Creation of the Charitable Trust
- 7.2 Modification/Cy Pres
Chapter 8 - Supervision/Enforcement of Charitable Trusts
- 8.1 Donor Standing
- 8.2 Beneficiary Standing
Chapter 9 - Treatment of Trust Property
- 9.1 The Duty to Collect and Protect Trust Property
- 9.2 The Duty to Earmark Trust Property and to Not Comingle Trust Funds
- 9.3 The Duty Not to Delegate
- 9.4 Duty of Prudence
Chapter 10 - Duty of Loyalty
Chapter 11 - Duty of Impartiality
Chapter 12 - Duty to Account and Inform
- 12.1 To Account
- 12.2 To Inform
- 12.3 The Trustee's Liability
Ancillary Material
Submit ancillary resourceAbout the Book
The use of testamentary trusts is becoming an important part of estate planning. As a result, students who want to make a living as probate attorneys will need to know how trusts fit into estate planning. In addition, bar examiners realize that it is important for students to have a basic knowledge of trust law. That realization will result in bar examination questions that test that knowledge. This book is designed for use as a supplementary text for a course on wills and trusts and the primary text in a seminar or course exploring the law of trusts.
About the Contributors
Author
Professor Lewis is the Leon & Gloria Plevin Professor of Law and the Director of the Center of Health Law & Policy at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Prior to joining the faculty at Cleveland-Marshall, Professor Lewis was an associate professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, a summer visiting professor at Seattle University School of Law and a legal writing instructor at Hamline University School of Law. Professor Lewis has also taught in the American Bar Association CLEO Summer Institute.
Professor Lewis has been a visiting scholar at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, the Hasting Center, and Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. As a Senior Fulbright Specialist, Professor Lewis conducted research at Hebrew University and Haifa University in Israel. Professor Lewis was also a Core Fulbright Scholar at King’s College in London, and a Robert Wood Johnson Public Health Law Scholar in Residence at the Cleveland Public Health Department.
Professor Lewis writes in the areas of estate planning, probate and reproductive law. Her article on human oocyte cryopreservation was recently published in the Tennessee Law Review. In 2012, New York University Press published Professor Lewis’ book on paternity and artificial insemination. Professor Lewis has recently completed a book on posthumous reproduction for Routledge Press.