Michigan Trusts & Estates Survey Article

Daniel W. Matthews (associate professor, Thomas M. Cooley Law School) recently published his article entitled Trusts and Estates, 55 Wayne L. Rev. 645 (2009).

Below is the introduction to the article:

The Michigan Court of Appeals rendered three published opinions involving trusts and estates during the Survey period. One decision interpreted a class gift to determine whether descendants of deceased class members could share in the devise either under the language of the will itself or under Michigan’s anti-lapse statute. The other two decisions involved the law of trusts. The first trust law case decided whether parties to trust litigation could charge their legal fees to the trust and whether a trust beneficiary could demand partition of real property. In a case of first impression in Michigan, the second trust law case addressed whether bank accounts titled “in trust for” an individual passes to such individual or whether such bank accounts pass via an express trust where the settlor assigned all of her assets to the trust by a general assignment.