In recent times there has been growing awareness about various heirs’ property problems, including massive, decades-long, involuntary land loss. Heirs’ Property and the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act: Challenges, Solutions, and Historic Reform should increase that awareness among lawyers, the general public, and policymakers. Just as importantly, the book offers many practical solutions for those seeking to address a variety of heirs’ property problems.

The contributing authors possess deep expertise in working on a range of heirs’ property issues, including Thomas Mitchell, the lead co-editor and contributing author, who was awarded the Mac Arthur Genius Grant in large part for his heirs’ property work. These authors include academics, leaders of various nonprofit organizations that do important heirs’ property work, grassroot activists, and prominent attorneys in private practice.

Includes:

• Discussion and analysis of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which represents historic reform of partition law, the source of massive property loss that has robbed disadvantaged urban and rural families of billions of dollars of generational wealth.


• Proposals for changing state laws that deprive heirs’ property owners of important tax benefits.


• Detailed guidance on how families and their attorneys can use proactive planning to either avoid or resolve various heirs’ property issues.


• Discussions of how some community-based and community development organizations have not only been helping many families retain their heirs’ property, but also have been helping them to use their property in more valuable and sustainable ways, including to build wealth.