Personalized Intestacy?
In Big Data and the Modern Family, Shelly Kreiczer-Levy kicks the tires on a provocative idea: using big data to “personalize” the rules of intestate succession. Recently, scholars have suggested that the same miraculous technology that permits big retailers to predict their customers’ purchasing needs to customize the law. For example, in the first extended treatment of the topic, Ariel Porat and Lior Strahilevitz suggest that the government can exploit big data to abandon the conventional one-size-fits-all approach to default rules and instead tailor background principles to individual preferences. Porat and Strahilevitz’s marquee example is intestacy. They note that empirical studies reveal that married fathers are more likely than married mothers to leave their entire estate to their spouse. Thus, they argue that an intestate system that varied with the decedent’s gender would be more likely to carry out his or her intent. But why stop there? Porat and Strahilevitz claim that intestacy statutes could also vary based on the decedent’s job, wealth, health, length of marriage, and age of children. In fact, using an algorithm, a probate court could “determine how an intestate’s estate should be allocated based on an analysis of his consumer behavior during his lifetime.”
Enter Kreiczer-Levy. Her thoughtful article begins by arguing that the rules of intestate succession are outdated. Indeed, as she explains, these principles “are notorious for privileging the nuclear family, to the exclusion of modern forms of associations and relationships.” In turn, Kreiczer-Levy observes that this makes personalized intestacy intriguing. In sharp contrast to the bright lines and rigid barriers of current law, a bespoke regime could effectuate an intestate decedent’s wish to leave assets to a lover, a best friend, or a young person who was treated like a full-blooded child but never adopted. Continue reading "Personalized Intestacy?"
