Volume 42, Issue 3

It is Monday morning. I arrive at the office a little later than I would have liked because I have just dropped my children off at school. Already, my client voice message light is on. I pick up the message, and it is from a responsible daughter, calling on behalf of her mother. I note…

Sixteen years after the landmark Supreme Court decision Olmstead v. L.C. ex rel. Zimring, traditional models of services and supports for persons with disabilities and older adults are changing. So too are traditional legal tools designed to protect individuals such as guardianship. Although the Olmstead case dealt specifically with residential institutions, in recent years, the…

For well over twenty-five years, researchers have analyzed the concept of financial exploitation of older and vulnerable adults. The crime of financial exploitation, an offense reserved exclusively for vulnerable adult (or, in some states, dependent or older adult) victims, has been described as one of the most difficult crimes to detect and has plagued researchers…

Islamic estate planning can be challenging for both lawyers and their clients. To attorneys unfamiliar with Islamic estate distribution, the fraction system for dividing an estate can be daunting. The problem can be compounded if Muslim clients do not fully understand the system that applies to their estate documents. Nonetheless, the Qur’an requires Muslims to…

The Minnesota Legislature adopted the Minnesota Trust Code during its 2015 session. With the adoption of the Trust Code, Minnesota joins thirty-one other states and the District of Columbia that have enacted a version of the Uniform Trust Code (UTC). The Trust Code became effective January 1, 2016, and marks a vast improvement on the…

Estate and benefits planning is a complicated topic for any client. There is no shortage of instruments that can be used to distribute assets to chosen family members while still providing income streams to the individual—IRAs, trusts, wills, joint accounts, to name several. But this planning landscape becomes imminently more difficult when the client either…

Statutes and regulations endeavor to direct behavior throughout society and allow injured individuals to recover for harm. However, the enactment of a particular law—or the absence thereof—can have other unintended consequences. What facially appears to facilitate resolution can, in practice, actually construct hurdles that inhibit this very goal. This paradox is especially prevalent in laws…