A Therapeutic Jurisprudential Framework of Estate Planning

Drawing upon the burgeoning field of therapeutic jurisprudence, this Article analyzes the psychological consequences of estate planning. This analysis reveals that the preparation and implementation of an estate plan through the execution of a will and other estate-planning documents has both therapeutic and antitherapeutic characteristics. This analysis also suggests that the positive and negative psychological consequences of estate planning can serve as a framework through which to analyze the law of succession and which can provide fresh perspectives on a diverse array of estate-planning issues. Because legal scholars have generally failed to employ therapeutic jurisprudential analysis in the estateplanning context, this Article illuminates the field’s analytical relevance to the study of estate planning and encourages the broad expansion of therapeutic jurisprudential analysis to other areas of the law of succession. To illustrate the field’s overlooked analytical potential with respect to the law of succession, this Article analyzes the therapeutic implications of a set of focused and discrete estate-planning rules, namely the law governing the wills of soldiers and sailors. This analysis confirms the viability of therapeutic jurisprudence as an insightful analytical tool with respect to not only the law governing military wills but also the estateplanning process generally. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates that the therapeutic jurisprudential framework of estate planning can ultimately reveal new areas of reform throughout the law of succession.