Ray Madoff is a Professor at Boston College Law School where she teaches trusts and estates, estate and gift tax, estate planning, and a seminar on immortality and the law. Professor Madoff is a regular commentator on matters of estate taxes, charitable giving, and general rights of the dead. She has published several op-eds in the New York Times and has also published op-eds in the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and Barons, among other publications. She has appeared on dozens of radio shows, including All Things Considered, Marketplace and the Leonard Lopate Show. Professor Madoff is the author of Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead (Yale 2010), which looks at how American law treats the interests of the dead and what this tells us about our values for the living. The Financial Times calls it "a sparkling polemic." Professor Madoff has done a number of radio interviews on the subject including: "Legally Dead," (The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC Radio), "Changes to U.S. Taxing After Death," (Marketplace), and "The Rising Power of the American Dead," (AARP Radio: Prime Time Focus), among others. For a full list, click here. Professor Madoff was also featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education: "5 Minutes With: A Law Professor on the Property Rights of the Dead."
Books
Practical Guide to Estate Planning (with Cornelia R. Tenney, Martin A. Hall, and Lisa N. Mingolla) (2012)
Provides an overview of estate planning, offering the widest variety of discussion on planning principles...
Practical Guide to Estate Planning (with Cornelia R. Tenney, Martin A. Hall, and Lisa N. Mingolla) (2011)
Practical Guide to Estate Planning provides an overview of estate planning, offering the widest variety...
Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead (2010)
This book takes a riveting look at how the law responds to that distinctly American...
Practical Guide to Estate Planning (with Cornelia R. Tenney, Martin A. Hall, and Lisa N. Mingolla) (2010)
Practical Guide to Estate Planning (with Cornelia R. Tenney, Martin A. Hall, and Lisa Nalchajian) (2009)
Articles
It's Time to Reform Donor Advised Funds, Tax Notes (2011)
In this article, Madoff argues that the current law governing donor-advised funds provides too much...
What Leona Helmsley Can Teach Us About the Charitable Deduction, Chicago-Kent Law Review (2010)
When Leona Helmsley, the New York hotel and real estate heiress, died in August 2007,...
Autonomy and End-of-Life Decision Making: Reflections of a Lawyer and a Daughter, Buffalo Law Review (2005)
What is the role of autonomy in end-of-life decision making? As a law professor specializing...
Mediating Probate Disputes: A Study of Court Sponsored Programs, Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal (2004)
This Article examines six court-sponsored programs designed to encourage the use of mediation to resolve...
Lurking in the Shadow: The Unseen Hand of Doctrine in Dispute Resolution, Southern California Law Review (2002)
Mediation - with its promise of less contentious, less expensive and more satisfying resolution of...
Contributions to Books
Removal, Resignation and Death of Fiduciaries (with Elaine M. Moriarty), Massachusetts Probate Manual (2012)
How the Law Constructs Its Understanding of Death, Children's Understanding of Death: From Biological to Religious Conceptions (2011)
In order to understand how adults deal with children’s questions about death, we must examine...
Comment on Tax Consequences on Wealth Accumulation and Transfers of the Rich, Death and Dollars: The Role of Gifts and Bequests in America (2003)
Despite the recent downturn in the stock market, the 1990s boom and the shift to...
Tax Considerations, Chapter 11 Theory and Practice: A Guide to Reorganization (1994)
United States Estate and Gift Tax Considerations, U.S. Portfolio Investment by Foreign Taxpayers (1989)
Popular Press
Immortality for Foundations Can Pose Big Challenges in Shifting Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy (2010)
Selected Professional Activities
Mourning in America: What's Law Got to Do With It?, LJST Law & Mourning Lecture Series (2013)
On March 27, 2013, Professor Maddoff presented a paper as part of Amherst College's LJST...
Immortality and the Law - the Rising Power of the American Dead, Rhode Island Bar Association 2012 Annual Meeting (2012)
While American law provides virtually no protections for the interests we hold most dear –...
Presented Paper, A Tale of Two Countries: A Comparison of the Inheritance Law of France and the United States, University of Minnesota Law School (2012)
Keynote Address: Immortality and the Law, University of Basel (2011)
Immortality and the Law, ACTEC New England Regional Meeting (2011)
Working Papers
The Role of Judicial Discretion in Dispute Settlement (with James Andreoni), Boston College Law School Faculty Papers (2008)
We consider two common modes of judicial resolution: judicial discretion, where the judge or jury...