Includes papers presented at a conference held 27 and 28 March 2015 at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Alexandra Braun and Anne Röthel -- Will-substitutes : a US perspective -- Thomas P Gallanis -- Will-substitutes in Canada -- Angela Campbell -- Will-substitutes in England and Wales -- Alexandra Braun -- Will-substitutes in Scotland -- Daniel Carr -- Will-substitutes in New Zealand and Australia -- Nicola Peart and Prue Vines -- Will-substitutes in Italian law -- Gregor Christandl -- Will-substitutes in French law -- Cécile Pérès -- Will-substitutes in German law -- Anatol Dutta -- Will-substitutes in Switzerland and Liechtenstein -- Dominique Jakob -- Will-substitutes from the perspective of business owners -- Susanne Kalss -- Will-substitutes from the perspective of (international) investors -- Paul Matthews -- Will-substitutes and creditors : Canada and the US -- Lionel Smith -- Will-substitutes : the perspective of creditors in Germany, and England and Wales -- Reinhard Bork -- Will-substitutes and the claims of family members and carers -- Jonathan Herring -- Will-substitutes and the family : a continental perspective -- Anne Röthel -- Exploring means of transferring wealth on deat h: a comparative perspective -- Alexandra Braun and Anne Röthel.

Wealth can be transferred on death in a number of different ways, most commonly by will. Yet a person can also use a variety of other means to benefit someone on death. Examples include donationes mortis causa, joint tenancies, trusts, life-insurance contracts and nominations in pension and retirement plans. In the US, these modes of transfer are grouped under the category of 'will-substitutes' and are generally treated as testamentary dispositions. Much has been written about the effect of the use of will-substitutes in the US, but little is generally known about developments in other jurisdictions. For the first time, this collection of contributions looks at will-substitutes from a comparative perspective. It examines mechanisms that pass wealth on death across a number of common law, civil law and mixed legal jurisdictions, and explores the rationale behind their use. It analyses them from different viewpoints, including those of owners of businesses, investors, as well as creditors, family members and dependants. The aims of the volume are to show the complexity and dynamics of wealth transfers on death across jurisdictions, to identify patterns between jurisdictions, and to report the attitudes towards the different modes of transfer in light of their utility and the potential frictions they give rise to with policies and principles underpinning current laws

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