LEO: Wills - Business Relations with Client -  LE Op. 1100

 

Wills - Business Relations with Client - Attorney Drafting Will and

Naming Himself as Executor and Devisee.

 

July 11, 1988

 

You advise that an elderly widow has asked you to draw up a new will

which names you as executor and names her son as the primary beneficiary.

Your client has virtually no estates, other than personal property, and is

living on social security payments. Should your client's son predecease

your client, she wishes to give her estate to a charity but is unable to

decide what charity to name.

 

You wish to know whether or not it is proper to include the following

provision in your client's will: "If my son _______ does not survive me

then I give, devise, and bequeath the aforesaid property to Attorney (your

name) of _______, Virginia, for the sole purpose of disposing of said

property by distributing it to the charitable institution of his choice,

less any costs of sale and distibution."

 

 DR:5-104(B) states that a lawyer shall not prepare an instrument

giving the lawyer or a member of the lawyer's family any gift from a

client, including a testamentary gift, except where the client is a

relative of the donee.

 

In order to comply with the disciplinary rule, the Committee opines that

the property should be placed in a trust. The Committee does not believe

that the language which you have chosen clearly places your client's

property in your trust and suggests that the language be revised.

 

Committee Opinion July 11, 1988