Customer Reviews

Gilbert Law Summaries: Trusts

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This short (238 pages) tome covers more aspects of Trust Law than any of the larger hornbooks I've read (such as Bogert's Trusts, 6th Student Edition). Best of all, where particular aspects of trusts vary from state to state, the Gilbert Law Summary on Trusts takes pains to distinguish between the pre-existing common law rule, the current rule in the majority of states, and the current rule in the minority of states.

Due to its brevity, this work cannot delve into Trust Law in as great a depth as ALI's Restatement of the Law of Trusts, and contains only citations to the relevart court cases rather than the text of the cases themselves. However, it provides an excellent starting place, even if you're already familiar with most aspects of Trust Law and merely want to find out something about a more obscure area of Trust Law.

Many unscrupulous organizations sell sham "pure trust" systems on the Internet nowadays, and each one of them makes some egregiously wrong assertions about how Trust Law works. Your best weapon against these snake-oil salesmen is to know how trusts *actually* work, and what they can and cannot do -- and Gilbert's Law Summary on Trusts is one of the best places to start learning.

I began using this book to prep for my trust and estates final exam, but I immediately found some obvious errors. I'm not sure if the errors are a result of it being outdated or the author incorrectly reading the UPC and state statutes. Regardless I found several errors in the first section alone and immediately stopped using it.