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1950 Wis. L. Rev. 393 (1950)
The Inheritance Process in Wisconsin

handle is hein.journals/wlr1950 and id is 405 raw text is: THE INHERITANCE PROCESS IN WISCONSIN EDWARD H. WARD' AND J. H. BEUSCHER* I. INTRODUCTION Lawyers evolve a model probate code by reading statutes and court decisions and applying to them ad hoc experience.' Economists talk about the inheritance process with little detailed information to justify their generalizations. Is actual experience reflected in an orderly analysis of carefully selected probate court records a sounder basis for law reform and for economic generalization? A conviction that it is motivated the law-in-action and economics-in-action re- search that is reported here. Four hundred and fifteen proceedings in the County Court of Dane County, Wisconsin for decedents who died in 1929, 1934, 1939, 1941, and 1944 respectively were investigated by a team of two-a lawyer and an economist.' This sample included 172 testate estates, 195 intestate estates, 33 joint tenancy survivorship proceedings, and 15 proceedings to determine descent of lands. The years listed above were chosen because of what estates of persons dying during these years might show about the relationship of the business cycle to capital accumulation. Nineteen twenty-nine, coming at the end of a relatively long period of peacetime prosperity, should provide evidence of the quantity of capital various groups of people accumulated during the twenties, and the way they chose to invest that capital. Nineteen thirty-four should show evidence of the effect of the depression on the kind and quantity of capital various groups could accumulate. Nineteen thirty-nine should show the effect of partial recovery, while 1941 should give some indication of the boom brought in by the t B.S. (1946), M.S. (1949) U. of Wis.; presently Ass't Prof. of Agricultural Economics at Montana State College. * B.A. (1931), LL.B. (1930) U. of Wis.; J.S.D. (1932) Yale University; pre- sently Prof. of Law at the U. of Wis. I See Simes, The Model Probate Code and Wisconsin Probate Laws, 1948 Wis. L. Rxv. 429. 2 Miss Emily Dodge and Mr. J. L. Bernheim shared responsibilities for the lawyers' role in this research; the co-author, Mr. E. H. Ward, was the economist member of the team. Prof. K. H. Parsons of the university's agricultural eco- nomics faculty and Prof. J. H. Beuscher of the law school gave advice and counsel to the research team. The work was supported by the Research Committee of the Graduate School of the University from special funds voted by the State Legislature.

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