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Americans move rather frequently from state to state in course of employment. Though family property law and law of inheritance is the domain of the states, the imperative is that it should not be diverse across the different states in this era of free mobility of citizens.
Accordingly the objects of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) are to reform the probate process and to harmonize and revise the law on inheritance, wills, trusts and intestacy across different states and jurisdictions.
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws released it in 1969. It has since then been revised from time to time, the last of which was in 2006. Initially in 1969 only 16 states adopted the UPC. Even among the adopting states, there are sometimes significant variations in the law.
Unlike the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code of 1969 was not very successful in standardization of the law across different states, although it was originally meant for adoption by all the fifty states.
UPC of 1991 replaces UPC of 1969. It has been enacted in 18 states and adopted in part by almost all the remaining states with the increasing acceptance of the need for standardization of family and inheritance laws.
(More http://www.nccusl.org/Update/uniformact_summaries/p
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uniform/probate.html)
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