Abstract
The principal system in the United States for transferring wealth from one generation to the next - the probate system - is a historically and steadfastly public one. Probate is a set of public processes and a court system created to situate and facilitate wealth transfer, giving legal imprimatur to the distribution of family money. Nevertheless, while the probate system may be the central and most conventional system for transferring wealth, not all families and individuals avail themselves of the system. The broad swath of families who avail themselves of the services and certain benefits of the probate system are, more likely than not, families who fall somewhere in the expansive middle of the wealth spectrum. Families and individuals on the polar ends of the wealth spectrum are far less likely than those in the middle to transfer wealth (whatever amount they have) through the probate process. That is to say, families and individuals at either end of the wealth spectrum often seek to transfer family money outside of probate, privately, off-grid. ...
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Recommended Citation
Allison Tait, Fringe Inheriting: Probate Avoidance at Both Ends of the Wealth Spectrum, 48 ACTEC L.J. 95 (2022).
Included in
Courts Commons, Estates and Trusts Commons, Family Law Commons
