TRUSTS-ILLUSORY TRANSFER-RIGHTS OF SURVIVING SPOUSE

Authors

Carl S. Krueger, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

ln 1939 Henry Halpern drafted a will naming his wife executrix and sole beneficiary of his estate. In 1946, about the time he and his wife separated, Halpern opened four savings accounts in his own name in trust for his infant granddaughter. While Halpern made subsequent deposits in two of them, he made no withdrawals; nor did he in any other manner revoke the trusts. Although evidence did not establish them as irrevocable trusts, it did show that Halpern on occasion indicated he meant the bank books to go to his granddaughter. Subsequently his wife, as executrix, instituted proceedings to have the purported trust accounts set aside and the funds brought into the estate. The surrogate found that the trusts infringed the widow's rights under the Decedent Estate Law, and they were set aside in entirety. The appellate division, modifying, ruled that since the trusts were illusory only in so far as they deprived the widow of her statutory share, they should be sustained except for that amount. On appeal, held, reversed. A savings bank trust, otherwise valid, is not illusory as to the surviving spouse. The court of appeals also found that the appellate division had erred in decreeing the trusts in part illusory and in part good. In re Halpern's Estate, 303 N.Y. 33, 100 N.E. (2d) 120.

Recommended Citation

Carl S. Krueger, TRUSTS-ILLUSORY TRANSFER-RIGHTS OF SURVIVING SPOUSE, 50 Mich. L. Rev. 783 (1952).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol50/iss5/18