Trusts, Wills & Estates Flashcards

Under New York EPTL 5-1.1-A, a surviving spouse's elective share is the greater of $50,000 or what fraction of the decedent's net estate?

Answer: One-third

EPTL 5-1.1-A entitles a surviving spouse to elect against the will and receive the greater of $50,000 or one-third of the net estate.

A testator executes a holographic will in New York, signing and dating it entirely in her own handwriting but with no witnesses. Under New York law, this will is:

Answer: Invalid because New York does not recognize holographic wills

New York does not recognize ordinary holographic wills: a will must be executed with the formalities of EPTL 3-2.1 (two attesting witnesses). EPTL 3-2.2 excepts only holographic or nuncupative wills of armed-forces members in actual military service and mariners at sea.

Under the New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law, which doctrine allows a court to modify a charitable trust whose original purpose has become impossible or impractical?

Answer: Cy-pres doctrine

The cy-pres doctrine permits a court to redirect a charitable trust to a purpose as close as possible to the settlor's original intent when that intent becomes impossible or impractical.

Testator's will includes a specific bequest of 'my 2020 Tesla Model S' to her nephew. The car is sold before the testator's death and replaced with a 2024 Tesla Model Y. Under New York law, the nephew:

Answer: Receives nothing because the bequest adeemed by extinction

This is ademption by extinction: a specific bequest fails when the specifically bequeathed property is not part of the estate at death. The legatee takes neither the replacement vehicle, the sale proceeds, nor the value of the car.

Under New York's common-law 'rule of convenience', a class gift to 'children' in a will presumptively closes when:

Answer: The testator dies

Under the rule of convenience, a class gift to 'children' closes when a class member is entitled to distribution, which for a will is generally the testator's death. Children born after the testator's death are generally excluded (posthumous children, however, are treated as living at death under EPTL 2-1.3), unless the will provides otherwise.

A New York inter vivos trust is created without a written instrument but is fully funded. Under New York law, this trust is:

Answer: Invalid, because every lifetime trust must be in writing and executed and acknowledged (or witnessed) under EPTL 7-1.17

EPTL 7-1.17(a) provides that every lifetime trust must be in writing and executed and acknowledged by the person establishing it (or signed in the presence of two witnesses). An unwritten inter vivos trust is therefore invalid in New York, even if funded.

Under New York EPTL 3-3.5, a will provision that penalizes a beneficiary for contesting the will is known as a(n):

Answer: Both B and C

A no-contest clause (also called an in terrorem clause) forfeits a bequest if the beneficiary contests the will, and both terms are used interchangeably in New York law.