A voluntary conveyance by husband of any of his real estate made
during coverture and not to take effect until after his decease, and
made with intent to defeat his widow in her claim to her share of his
real estate, shall be void and inoperative to bar her claim to her share
of such real estate. The husband shall be deemed at the time of his
death to be the owner and seised of such real estate for the purpose
of assigning and setting out such share to his widow.
8
Under the case law set forth above, the prohibition against fraudulent transfers applied to transfers
of personal property as well.
¶ 17. Act 55, enacted in 2009, made various changes to existing law, including increasing
a surviving spouse’s elective and intestate shares. See 2009, No. 55, § 5 (codified at 14 V.S.A.
§§ 311, 319); see also Willbanks & Secrest, supra (discussing changes made by Act 55). It also
added § 321, which expanded the fraudulent-conveyance language referenced above to expressly
include personal property and to explicitly encompass “individuals” who transfer property rather
than merely “husbands.” See 2009, No. 55, § 5; see also Willbanks & Secrest, supra, at 28
(similarly concluding that § 321 “expands former section 473 of Title 14 to apply to all of
decedent’s property rather than just real estate”); see also S. Willbanks, Parting Is Such Sweet
Sorrow, But Does It Have to Be So Complicated? Transmission of Property at Death in Vermont,
29 Vt. L. Rev. 895, 925-26 (2005) (discussing prior law, including gender-specific nature of 14
V.S.A. § 473 (2008) and noting various problems that could arise as a result of gender-specific
provisions in then-existing law).
¶ 18. Section 321 states: