What factors run through a title underwriter’s mind when considering whether to insure a conveyance out of an estate or out of a trust? What is the “law” governing such conveyances? As Benjamin Franklin noted, “…in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” In this seminar, we will consider the first of Franklin’s certainties, death, and how decedents and the strategies which they and their advisers use to avoid the impact of the second certainty, taxes. The types of estates in land, their differences, as well as the types of trusts, the differences between them and the impact of judgments, liens and encumbrances upon the decedents, their heirs, successors and assigns will also be discussed.