Beyond Privity of Blood: Intestacy and Charity

Adam J. Hirsch’s (Napoleon A. Jones, Jr. Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law) article, Beyond Privity of Blood: Intestacy and Charity, was recently published in 76 University of California Law Journal 353 (2025) (formerly Hastings Law Journal) and is available on SSRN. Here is the abstract of the article:

When individuals die without leaving a will, the law of intestacy functions to distribute their estates to a surviving spouse and/or close blood relatives. Yet, this default regime fails to account for the possibility that some individuals wish to allocate part of their estates to charity. Drawing on empirical evidence, including data presented here for the first time, this Article advocates building a charitable component into intestacy in those cases where majorities of decedents prefer to establish estate plans transcending traditional heirs. Evidence suggests that this majority preference arises in four situations: (1) where the decedent was extremely wealthy, (2) where the decedent was less wealthy but died without descendants, (3) where the decedent died without descendants and had made charitable donations, irrespective of wealth, and (4) where the decedent died without any known relatives. The Article proposes personalizing the process of intestacy further by granting charitable shares, when called for, to those causes which decedents had individually supported during their lifetimes. The Article assesses the structural costs and benefits of these innovations and concludes that they would not prove excessively complex or administratively burdensome.

David Horton reviewed the article in Jotwell: Trusts and Estates.  The review is available at https://trustest.jotwell.com/charities-as-heirs/