Bar Exam Bar Exam Wills, Trusts & Estates 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A testator executes a will with two witnesses, one of whom is also a named beneficiary. Under the majority purging statute rule in US states, what is the result?
- The will is entirely void
- The gift to the interested witness is void but the will remains valid (Correct answer)
- The will is valid and the gift to the witness stands in full
- The witness must renounce the bequest before the will is admitted to probate
Correct answer: The gift to the interested witness is void but the will remains valid
Most states apply a purging statute that voids only the gift to an interested witness while leaving the rest of the will valid.
Question 2: A testator handwrites an entire will in his own hand, dates and signs it, but does not have any witnesses. He dies in a state that recognizes holographic wills. The will is:
- Invalid because it lacks two attesting witnesses
- Valid as a holographic will without witnesses (Correct answer)
- Valid only if it was subsequently notarized
- Invalid unless the testator was a licensed attorney
Correct answer: Valid as a holographic will without witnesses
A holographic will entirely in the testator's handwriting, signed and dated, is valid in states recognizing holographic wills without the need for attesting witnesses.
Question 3: Which of the following is NOT a valid method of revoking a will under the majority rule?
- Executing a subsequent will expressly revoking the prior will
- Physically burning the will with intent to revoke
- Orally declaring the will revoked before two witnesses (Correct answer)
- Executing a codicil with provisions inconsistent with prior bequests
Correct answer: Orally declaring the will revoked before two witnesses
Wills cannot be revoked by oral declaration alone; revocation requires a written instrument or a physical act performed with revocatory intent.
Question 4: Under the doctrine of ademption by extinction, if a testator specifically bequeaths her car to her brother but sells the car before death, the brother:
- Receives nothing because the specific bequest is adeemed (Correct answer)
- Receives the sale proceeds still traceable in the estate
- Receives the residuary estate as a substitute
- Receives a comparable car purchased from estate funds
Correct answer: Receives nothing because the specific bequest is adeemed
Under the identity theory, when specifically bequeathed property no longer exists in the estate at the testator's death, the bequest is extinguished and the beneficiary receives nothing.
Question 5: Under a typical anti-lapse statute, if a testator's will leaves property to a predeceased child, the gift typically:
- Lapses and passes into the residuary estate
- Passes equally to the testator's other surviving children
- Is held in trust until the grandchildren reach majority
- Passes to the predeceased child's surviving descendants (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Passes to the predeceased child's surviving descendants
Anti-lapse statutes prevent a gift from lapsing when the predeceased beneficiary is within a protected class by substituting the beneficiary's descendants to take the gift.
Question 6: A testator marries after executing a valid will that makes no mention of the new spouse. Under the UPC pretermitted spouse rule, the omitted spouse receives:
- Nothing, because the prior will controls
- A forced elective share equal to one-third of the estate
- The entire estate because the marriage revokes the prior will
- An intestate share unless the omission was intentional or the spouse was otherwise provided for (Correct answer)
Correct answer: An intestate share unless the omission was intentional or the spouse was otherwise provided for
The UPC protects omitted spouses by granting them an intestate share unless the will was made in contemplation of the marriage or the spouse was otherwise provided for outside the will.
Bar Exam Bar Exam Wills, Trusts & Estates 1
A testator executes a will with two witnesses, one of whom is also a named beneficiary.
Under the majority purging statute rule in US states, what is the result?