Article on Homestead Exemption

Bryan Malloy (Arkansas Law Review) has recently published an article entitled, Minor Fix or Major Pain: The Impact of Fitton v. Bank of Little Rock on Arkansas’s Homwstead Exemption (2013). Provided below is the introduction to the article: 

In June 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court handed down a decision that dealt with an “issue of first impression, of substantial public interest, and in need of clarification or development of the law.” ¹ In Fitton v. Bank of Little Rock, the court ultimately held that re-titling real property to an individual’s revocable trust ² does not abandon or otherwise remove the individual’s homestead exemption. ³Though there are few, if any, examples of the application of Fitton’s holding, the ramifications of this holding are far reaching. Prospectively, Fitton may potentially impact the way attorneys handle both estate planning and real-estate conveyances and, additionally, will impact both title companies and lenders. ⁴ While only time and subsequent caselaw will truly tell how far-reaching Fitton’s impact will be, much can be learned by looking to the Arkansas Supreme Court’s opinion in Fitton and evaluating how other jurisdictions have handled the issue.