Non-probate transfers analyzed

Grayson M.P. McCouch (Professor of Law, University of San Diego) recently authored an article entitled Probate Law Reform and Nonprobate Transfers,  62 U. Miami L. Rev. 757 (2008).
   

Here is an excerpt from this article:

For over forty years, probate law reformers have struggled to come to grips with nonprobate transfers. When the Uniform Probate Code was initially promulgated in 1969, its chief reporter vigorously promoted the Code as a “possible answer to probate avoidance” and urged estate lawyers to support it on grounds of enlightened self-interest. His premise–that wholesale adoption of the Code would restore public confidence in the probate system and preserve the traditional role of lawyers in estate planning and administration–has yet to be fully tested. While the Code has prompted renewed debate over probate reform, its core provisions setting forth a streamlined system of probate administration have not been widely adopted, and probate avoidance has lost none of its power as a marketing slogan for purveyors of revocable trusts and other will substitutes. Recognizing the growing importance of nonprobate transfers, reformers have recently embraced a policy of “unifying the law of wills and will substitutes.” This ambitious project of unification highlights some basic questions about the relationship between probate and nonprobate transfers and their respective roles in a unified law of succession.”