The Lloyd Leva Plaine Memorial Fund

Lloyd Leva Plaine, our much admired and beloved colleague, passed away unexpectedly on February 2, 2010. Lloyd's career-long dedication to our profession, the improvement of the transfer tax system and the education of her colleagues, made her a shining star in the trust and estate world. The ACTEC Foundation, in conjunction with her friends and colleagues, has organized to create The Lloyd Leva Plaine Memorial Fund to recognize and celebrate Lloyd's contributions to our profession. The sole purpose of the Fund is to support and promote a prestigious annual lecture, to be known as the "Lloyd Leva Plaine Distinguished Lecture."

Please consider supporting the The Lloyd Leva Plaine Memorial Fund in addition to your regular Foundation gift.

Harvard University Estate Planning Clinic

The ACTEC Foundation is committed to developing a pilot program to train law students to prepare basic estate planning documents for low-income clients in a legal clinic setting. The Legal Services Center, headquartered in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, houses the Harvard Estate Planning Clinic where the clinic’s emphasis is on serving the terminally ill, the disabled, the frail elderly and survivors of domestic violence. Students participating in the program gain experience while giving to a community that has pressing needs and limited means.

The ACTEC Foundation’s support for the Estate Planning Clinical Education Pilot Program has accomplished many goals, including: (1) encouraging law students to enter into the trust and estate practice, (2) providing a model to use at other law schools also to be funded in part by the ACTEC Foundation, (3) raising the education level of our profession, (4) giving to the community, especially those who are in the greatest need, and (5) to cause the curriculum of law schools to include trusts and estates as a regular course.

University of Tennessee Estate Planning Clinic

The second estate planning clinic based on the pilot project model will open at University of Tennessee Law School in Fall, 2009 through a Foundation grant. The clinic will be directed by Professor Amy M. Hess and Professor Paulette J. Williams. They will be teaming with other clinical professors and local practitioners. The clinic will provide an opportunity for participation for up to twelve students per semester.

ACTEC Journal Student Editorial Board

With the grant by the Foundation, Hofstra University has agreed to organize and maintain an ACTEC Journal Student Editorial Board. This student editorial board will be supervised by an Academic Editor who will be a full-time law professor at Hofstra University specializing in trusts and estates. The vision is that such a student editorial board would provide valuable assistance to the publication by reviewing articles accepted for publication by the Editor to ensure that all citations and footnotes are technically consistent and correct, and to minimize typographical and similar errors.

The creation of the student editorial board, with Hofstra law school and Academic Editor, Mitch Gans, will help the Foundation make the Journal one of the best in the country, while providing students with significant trust and estate experience.