Wills Trusts and Estates Flashcards
7 cards from real DE BAR practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Wills Trusts and Estates flashcards as text
A Delaware executor must generally file an inventory of the estate with the Register of Wills within what period after the grant of letters?
Answer: 3 months
Delaware personal representatives must file an inventory and appraisal within three months after letters are granted.
Under Delaware law, creditors' claims against a decedent's estate are generally barred unless presented within what time after death?
Answer: Eight months
Delaware's nonclaim statute bars most creditor claims not presented within eight months of the decedent's death.
A testator writes 'I revoke my 2020 will' on the original will and signs it, but no witnesses attest. Under Delaware law, is the 2020 will revoked?
Answer: Yes, if the writing on the will qualifies as a revocatory act of cancellation performed by the testator with intent to revoke
A will may be revoked by a physical act such as cancellation performed on the will by the testator with revocatory intent, without witness attestation.
A Delaware trust instrument is silent on trustee compensation. What is the trustee entitled to receive?
Answer: Reasonable compensation under the circumstances
Absent a governing-instrument provision, a Delaware trustee is entitled to reasonable compensation for its services.
Under Delaware's prudent investor standard, a trustee's investment decisions are evaluated how?
Answer: In the context of the trust portfolio as a whole and as part of an overall investment strategy
Prudence is assessed by portfolio-wide strategy considering risk and return objectives, not by hindsight review of individual assets.
A beneficiary of a Delaware testamentary trust wants to compel a distribution from a purely discretionary trust. When will the Court of Chancery intervene?
Answer: Only if the trustee abused its discretion, acted in bad faith, or failed to exercise judgment
Courts defer to a trustee's discretion and intervene only for abuse of discretion, bad faith, dishonesty, or failure to act.
H and W, Delaware residents, die in a common accident and the order of death cannot be established. Under the simultaneous death rule, how is each spouse's property distributed?
Answer: Each estate is distributed as if that owner survived the other
When survivorship cannot be established, each decedent's property passes as though that decedent survived, preventing double administration.