Minimizing the Surviving Spouse's Elective Share

Abstract

Georgia is the only American jurisdiction with neither community property nor a statutory right of election to protect a surviving spouse from disinheritance. Thus, it is a unique laboratory in which to conduct empirical research into the question: where it is legal to do so without artifice or indirection, who disinherits their surviving spouse, and why? The surprising reality is that women disinherit men nearly twice as often, and for all the right reasons. This article presents those empirics and then displays effective methods for an estate plan to effectively disinherit a surviving spouse notwithstanding state laws that are designed to protect the surviving spouse.