Deborah S. Gordon | Karen J. Sneddon | Carla Spivack | Allison Anna Tait

Here is the publisher’s description of this updated casebook:

This textbook uniquely combines rigorous doctrinal instruction, learner-centered and practice-oriented material, and reminders of the social and political consequences of how we structure inheritance law. The opening chapters introduce students to key concepts in intergenerational wealth transfer and planning for incapacity and death. The remainder of the book highlights inheritance law concepts from both a forward-looking (planning/drafting) and backward-looking (litigation) perspective. It is the only trusts and estates textbook to include the Indian Trust cases in the fiduciary duties section and to place older undue influence cases like Moses and Kaufmann in the context of social norms and biases. The third edition continues to include learning outcomes at the beginning of each chapter to help with ABA compliance and student focus, a broad, varied, and updated array of formative assessments (with new sample answers and rubrics), a glossary of terms (expanded), highlight boxes to draw student attention to practice notes, connection notes, and language notes, and final chapter assessments to link topics together. Some examples of the assessments in the third edition include role playing exercises, drafting client letters and testamentary instruments, writing policy papers, legislation, and judicial opinions, and preparing community and client presentations. Each chapter also features more traditional hypotheticals, fact patterns, and discussion questions. The third edition also provides a bank of assessment questions and answers (multiple choice, short essay, longer essay, drafting, and integrated) designed to prepare students for the NextGen bar exam.

Photo of Gerry W. Beyer Gerry W. Beyer

Dr. Gerry W. Beyer joined the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Law in June 2005 as the first holder of the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professorship. Previously, Prof. Beyer taught as a professor or visiting professor at several other…

Dr. Gerry W. Beyer joined the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Law in June 2005 as the first holder of the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professorship. Previously, Prof. Beyer taught as a professor or visiting professor at several other law schools including Boston College, Boston University, The Ohio State University, Southern Methodist University, the University of New Mexico, Santa Clara University, St. Mary’s University, and La Trobe University in Australia.

Prof. Beyer is admitted to practice in Texas, Illinois (inactive), Ohio (inactive) and before the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Prof. Beyer is the recipient of dozens of outstanding and distinguished faculty awards from three law schools including the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the most prestigious university-wide teaching award at Texas Tech, the 2015 President’s Academic Achievement Award, and the Outstanding (Law) Researcher Award in 2013 and 2017.

As a state and nationally recognized expert in estate planning, Prof. Beyer is a highly sought after lecturer. He presents dozens of continuing legal education presentations each year for many national, state, and local bar associations, universities, and civic groups. In recognition of his expertise and contributions to the legal profession, the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils inducted him into the Estate Planning Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2022, Prof. Beyer was awarded the Distinguished Probate Attorney Lifetime Achievement Award by the Real Estate, Probate, and Trust Law Section of State Bar of Texas.

Prof. Beyer is the editor of the most popular estate planning blawg in the nation which after being named for five consecutive years to the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 was awarded Hall of Fame status in 2015.

Prof. Beyer is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles focusing on various aspects of estate planning, including a two-volume treatise on Texas wills law, an estate planning law school casebook, and the Wills, Trusts, and Estates volume of the Examples & Explanations series. He has four times won awards from the American Bar Association’s Probate & Property magazine for his writing. He is one of the most often downloaded law authors on the Social Science Research Network with a ranking in the top .001%.  Prof. Beyer is the Editor-in-Chief of the REPTL Reporter, the official journal of the largest section of the State Bar of Texas, the Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section.

Prof. Beyer serves as a mentor to many students and various law school organizations as well participating regularly in pro bono activities. He is the advisor for the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal and its annual seminar, the Black Law Students Association, and the Estate and Property Law Society.

Prof. Beyer received his J.D. from the Ohio State University (summa cum laude) and his LL.M. and J.SD. degrees from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Order of the Coif, an Academic Fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a member of the American Law Institute, and was appointed by the Uniform Law Commission as the Reporter for the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act and the Integration of Probate and Non-Probate Transfers Study Committee.