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Teaches the substantive law of wills, trusts, estate administration, and other legal issues posed by death, aging, the dying process, and survivorship.
Includes study of ways to pass property outside probate, living wills, durable powers of attorney for health care, and laws governing organ donation,
refusal of medical treatment, and euthanasia. Studies preparation of related forms and steps of estate administration.

TEXT: Gordon W. Brown, Administration of Wills, Trusts and Estates
(Lawyers Coop - Delmar Publishing - third edition).

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. Students will list the various ways of passing property after death: including wills, trusts, and probate avoiding alternatives. Students will compare and contrast these methods, and will be able to advise a hypothetical client about which of these ways best meet the client's specified goals.

2. Students will outline the process of drafting a will, will list rules for good drafting practice, and will draft a simple will for a hypothetical client.

3. Students will be list the steps involved in estate administration, and will complete forms commonly used in this process on behalf of a hypothetical client.

4. Students will be list the legal issues that arise as a person?s physical and mental
health fails, and will draft and explain the provisions of some of the legal documents and procedural papers (living wills, durable powers of attorney, motions for court orders to end abuse or to appoint a guardian) posed by these situations.

5. Students will be identify ethical issues and responsibilities faced by professionals working in the areas of elder law, wills and estate administration, and will solve hypothetical problems raising some of these issues.

6. Students will differentiate probate from non-probate assets, and will be able to compute probate taxes due.

7. Students will describe the purpose and main provisions of the federal estate and gift tax, will identify and describe the function of the major tools estate planners use to lower the amount of tax due, and will be able to assess the amount due in hypothetical situations.

8. Students will identify the major ways states use to protect family members from disinheritance, and will explain how family protection laws impact upon the plans of hypothetical clients.

9. Students will use the Internet to locate relevant statutes in various states.

10. Students will integrate the knowledge gained in the course, and will apply that knowledge to spot ethical dilemmas and to resolve hypothetical estate planning and probate related problems.

SAMPLE COURSE OUTLINE
(Each session below represents 3 contact hours)

Session One: Course overview. Introduction to private property rights, death, and legal rights beyond the grave.

Session Two: Wills and Property Rights. Finding Virginia statutes. Reason for having wills.

Session Three: Overview of estate planning tools. Advantages and Disadvantages. Mixing methods to reach client goals. Purposes and current structure of the federal estate tax, and legal ways to lessen the impact of the tax.

Session Four: Types of property. Intestate succession laws.

Session Five: Statutory research on the Internet. Solving intestacy issues in various states. Review for unit one exam.

Session Six: Will drafting tips. Sample cases. Substantial compliance versus exact enforcement of the law.

Session Seven: Will drafting exercises. Virginia forms.

Session Eight: Trusts. Necessary elements. Living trusts versus testamentary trusts. Tax implications. Sample cases and client hypotheticals

Session Nine: Competency and undue influence. Ethical issues for lawyers and paralegals.

Session Ten: Special provisions in trusts. Spendthift and sprinkle spray provisions. Special needs trusts for disabled persons. Marital bypass
trusts and tax planning. Sample problem solving and drafting exercises.

Session Eleven: Family protection provisions. Elective shares for spouses and provisions for pretermitted children. Research: Virginia statutes.
Sample problem solving.

Session Twelve: The Uniform Probate Code and other Uniform Laws.Legal and ethical obligations of the personal representative. Hypothetical
problems solving? Uniform Simultaneous Death Act issues.

Session Thirteen: Administering an Estate in Virginia. Internet research for relevant statutes, forms and instruction sheets. Hypothetical problem solving.

Session Thirteen: Child neglect and termination of parental rights.Delinquent children and CHINS. Ethical issues for attorneys and paralegals
When the client is a child. Video: Juvenile Courts

Session Fourteen: The Federal Estate and Gift Tax. Planning mechanisms, available deductions and tax computation. Hypothetical problem solving.

Session Fifteen: The Right to Refuse Medical Treatment versus Prohibitions on Euthanasia and Suicide. Privacy rights and the dying process. Living wills,
Advanced Directives and the limits of substituted consent. Research and Drafting exercises. Video: Dying in America.

Session Sixteen: Other legal issues associated with death and dying. Funerals. Legal rights in bodies. Organ Donation. Autopsies and accommodation of
religious beliefs. Ethical implications for attorneys and paralegals. Hypothetical problem solving. CP Exam review.

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