TaxProf Blog

Martin Begleiter (Drake)

• B.A. 1967, University of Rochester
• J.D.  1970, Cornell    

Drake Law Review was recently cited as one of the top 25 journals in terms of the number of times judges have used its articles in deciding cases, according to recent rankings compiled by Washington & Lee. Today, Tax Prof Blog spotlights one of the tax professors partly responsible for this ranking.

Martin Begleiter has only had two jobs since he graduated from Cornell Law School in 1970. For seven years following graduation he practiced with the New York City firm of Kelley Drye & Warren in estate planning. He remembers the firm as great teachers. “The first estate I was responsible for was the chauffer of one of our major clients. We did the estate just as if it were a $100 million estate. We took no shortcuts.” The firm used such matters as vehicles to teach young attorneys the proper way of doing things. Marty learned a great deal from his practice experience that he still uses in his teaching, such as which doctrines come up often and which are rarely seen. He tries to impart to his students the importance of doing things correctly, not taking shortcuts and considering the ethics of their actions.

In practice, Marty considered himself a wills lawyer but quickly learned the pervasive influence of taxation in estate planning and administration. Everything he did had tax implications.

Marty became an Associate Professor of Law in 1977. “I was fortunate that the Tax Reform Act of 1976 became effective 9 months before I started teaching. Everyone was learning the new law at the same time so I wasn’t behind experienced teachers.” One attorney with his law firm suggested that, since he was going to Iowa, he ought to write something on the new section on farm valuation for estate tax (§ 2032A). Marty agreed, and the result was one of the earliest and most extensive articles on § 2032A and an invitation to speak on the subject at the Notre Dame Estate Planning Institute. His interest in § 2032A led to three other articles on the subject and to him being named Chair of several committees of the ABA Real Property, Probate & Trust Section. Recommendations in one of the articles produced by these committees contributed to the enactment of §§ 2504(c) & 2001(f)(2).

Marty’s research interests have ranged through wills & trusts and estate & gift taxation. He became interested in the difference in treatment between administrative and substantive powers in both estate tax and trust law, resulting in an article questioning the difference in treatment of different types of powers in both areas. And when the special valuation rules were enacted in 1990, Marty decided that the best way to learn the new rules (in order to teach them) was to write an article. “To really understand complex rules to teach them to students, I have always found writing an article helps greatly. To write an article on a subject, you need to do an in-depth examination of it and really understand it.” The result was two articles covering the new rules.

One of Marty’s goals as an educator was realized when he was elected to membership in the ALI in 1990. Marty always wanted to help write a Restatement, and he could now do so. In 1996, he was appointed as an Adviser to the Restatement (Third) of Trusts and has also contributed to the Restatement (Third) of Property (Wills and Other Donative Transfers) as part of the Members Consultative Group.

An enduring interest of Marty’s has always been malpractice in estate planning, which combines wills & trusts and tax law. “I became interested when I taught cases where the courts got the ‘right’ result by distorting a testator’s words or creating exceptions to the usual meaning of language. I thought that this could hurt good drafters, who might be unsure that the words they chose carefully would have the meaning the drafter intended.” In his “Gambler” series of 4 articles, Marty explored the malpractice revolution in estate planning and the issues it has spawned.

One of the efforts of which Marty is most proud is his integration and authorship (as one of the two principal drafters) of the Iowa Trust Code. The five year effort to draft and enact a Trust Code in Iowa (which preceded the adoption of the Uniform Trust Code) and the following five years of fine-tuning the Code through amendments have been extremely satisfying. “My co-drafter (a former student) and I worked through the Probate and Trust Section of The Iowa State Bar Association. The estate planning lawyers in Iowa got involved in the effort and invested in it. Once it was approved by the Section, there was unanimous support for the Code by the lawyers and the Bar Association. The amendments had the same support. The whole process was extremely satisfying.”

Marty is currently at work on drafting the 7th edition of Scoles, Halbach, Roberts and Begleiter, Problems and Materials on Decedents’ Estates and Trusts (Aspen, forthcoming 2006), of which he was recently named a co-author. Following the publication of the new edition of the book, he intends to update his 2001 Drake Law Review article on the Iowa Trust Code to review amendments to the Code and developing case law. He also intends to return to one of his early interests: the guardian ad litem and virtual representation. In 1984, Marty authored what is generally considered the primary work on the role of the guardian ad litem. With the increase in the use of virtual representation in the new trust codes, he wants to return to the area to explore the issues raised by the use of virtual representation to confer jurisdiction and the dangers of potential conflicts of interests.

Marty had four goals when he entered academia: to write a restatement, to author a casebook, to get a hole in one (which he did on Maui in 1997) and to see his beloved Cleveland Brown win the Super Bowl. Three have been accomplished; he is eagerly awaiting the last.

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