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Wills, Trusts, and Estates

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Retaining the late Jesse Dukeminier's signature blend of wit, erudition, insight, and playfulness, Wills, Trusts, and Estates , now in its Eighth Edition , continues to offer interesting cases, well written notes, and a logical organization. The Eight Edition's new Companion Website , available with adoptions, includes an electronic version of the Teacher's Manual, PowerPoint slides on selected topics, and author updates. A stellar example of a great casebook, Wills, Trusts, and Estates With many new and revised notes, questions, and problems, the carefully updated Eighth Edition Co-authors Robert Sitkoff and James Lindgren took great care to preserve the voice and spirit of Jesse Dukeminier, while fulfilling the trust and expectation among users for timely and relevant coverage, cases, and note material. LOOKING FOR ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TO HELP YOU IN WILLS TRUSTS & ESTATES? TRY EXAMPLES & WILLS TRUSTS & ESTATES 4E (9780735562400) AND INTRODUCTION TO PROPERTY 3E (9780735589353) --TWO OF MANY GREAT STUDY GUIDES FROM WOLTERS KLUWER LAW & BUSINESS.

1025 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

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63 people want to read

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5 stars
30 (13%)
4 stars
63 (28%)
3 stars
76 (34%)
2 stars
30 (13%)
1 star
22 (9%)
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
94 reviews
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May 3, 2022
Light spring read ☺️
Profile Image for Chandler Brooke.
341 reviews4 followers
June 14, 2022
Loved the stuff about trusts for pets, and the juicy stories of affairs. Did not enjoy figuring out how to pronounce cy pres.
Profile Image for Izzy.
275 reviews
December 9, 2025
TRUST I’m done with Trust and Estates! Excuse me while I make a statutory trust for all my friend’s pets. One more exam!
Profile Image for Suzanne Lang.
78 reviews11 followers
December 4, 2013
Best law school textbook so far. Tons of unnecessary gossipy footnotes, which I loved. Ex. "this guy's nephew professionally de-snaked dogs." "this lady was married 4 times to 4 crazy men and blew all her money on seances." Obviously paraphrased but you get the picture. Definitely don't skip the footnotes if you have to read this book for class.
Profile Image for Sarah.
432 reviews126 followers
July 14, 2019
Pretty fun, actually. The chapters on powers of appointment and wealth transfer taxation made me want to fling myself off a cliff but the other chapters were fairly readable and the little inserts with details about the backgrounds of the parties and judges and cases were a lot of fun.
Profile Image for Allison.
17 reviews
November 18, 2025
liked the fun blurbs that told me what happened to the parties after the case ended
Profile Image for Scott.
9 reviews
October 19, 2010
It is a great book. In preparation of your estate documents, it is vital that you have an understanding of what you want and how you can get it.

Don't do it yourself. Paying an attorney to write the documents will cost you hundreds, maybe thousands - but you know what the cost is right now. So it is a fixed and controllable expenditure. Shop around. find an attorney who can do what you want at a fair price.

If you do it yourself, no one will find your mistakes until you are dead. Fixing the mistakes you made may cost your heirs $1,000s, TENS of thousands, maybe HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars. Fixing the mistakes will come at an incredible cost in time, money and frustration for your heirs. It will involve the courts and dealing with the IRS! The old saying: "The attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client."
Profile Image for Courtney.
487 reviews2 followers
September 15, 2020
This was surprisingly enjoyable, as far as case books go! Each chapter was filled with small narrative style portions to make it as readable as possible. The cases were interesting and illustrated the points well.

I think that the content was pretty light though, obviously geared toward beginners and students.

I looked forward to the footnotes in each chapter!
Profile Image for Steven.
529 reviews33 followers
July 9, 2007
Textbook as part of my Wills, Trusts, and Estates class in Escuela de Law.
3 reviews3 followers
December 8, 2007
more humor than one would expect to find in a casebook - the editors do a good job to lighten this up...
Profile Image for Valerie Sherman.
1,016 reviews21 followers
December 21, 2007
I'm with Meg on this one, this was pretty good as casebooks go. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that it had pictures - even a full color plate of a Mark Rothko painting!
Profile Image for Meg Murphy.
4 reviews3 followers
December 15, 2007
this is actually pretty good for a textbook. i enjoy the pictures and editor's footnotes about the background of the crazy people involved in the cases. it makes the cases more interesting.
116 reviews1 follower
July 7, 2016
I like the organization and format of this casebook.
Profile Image for Tim W.
6 reviews
Read
December 10, 2008
Apparently the Bolsheviks got rid of inheritance altogether in 1918 but had to bring it back four years later because the abolition caused too much political unrest.
Profile Image for Purple Wimple.
160 reviews
June 7, 2008
Casebook for wills, trusts, and estates. Dukeminier picks interesting ones, and the topic is a necessary for every adult, eventually!

This is better read for credit.
14 reviews3 followers
May 29, 2009
Hate the subject matter, but am forced to admit that this is a good text for a clear and concise summation of trust and estate law.
Profile Image for David.
15 reviews1 follower
December 2, 2010
Not bad for required law reading! The authors try to inject some humor and interesting notes after cases.
Profile Image for Beth.
7 reviews1 follower
May 23, 2008
this is how much my life sucks...this is actually my most exciting reading for the semester.
Profile Image for Ellen Drews.
3 reviews2 followers
May 26, 2008
Unfortunately...this is more accurate of what I am spending my time reading these days.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews

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