The Law and Economics of Wealth Management and Transmission

The George Mason Law Review’s Fall 2025 symposium, on The Law and Economics of Wealth Management and Transmission, brought together leading scholars to examine the legal and economic structures governing the accumulation, management, and intergenerational transmission of wealth. The symposium was held at the Antonin Scalia Law School on September 26, 2025, under the auspices of the law school’s Global Wealth Management Project.

The symposium was made possible through the generous support of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Foundation, which awarded the Global Wealth Management Project a grant to support this event. The Law Review is grateful to the ACTEC Foundation for its continued commitment to fostering rigorous scholarship in trusts and estates.

The symposium was organized by Professor Thomas P. Gallanis of the Antonin Scalia Law School, whose leadership was critical to developing this program and convening a distinguished group of contributors. The keynote address was delivered by Professor James R. Hines Jr. of the University of Michigan’s Law School and Department of Economics, a leading scholar in taxation and public finance. Articles will be published in Volume 33, Issue 2, of the George Mason Law Review.

Scholars contributing papers to the symposium included:

• Yun-chien Chang (Cornell University)
• Thomas Gallanis (George Mason University)
• Mark Gergen (University of California, Berkeley)
• Richard Kaplan (University of Illinois)
• Saul Levmore (University of Chicago)
• Christopher Ryan (Indiana University, Bloomington), David Horton (University of California, Davis) & Reid Weisbord (Rutgers University, Newark)
• Max Schanzenbach (Northwestern University) & Robert Sitkoff (Harvard University)
• David Schizer (Columbia University) & Thomas Brennan (Harvard University)

The symposium featured discussion among scholars, faculty, students, and practitioners on a wide range of topics, including tax policy, fiduciary law, and the economic effects of legal rules governing private wealth. We thank Professor Gallanis for organizing the symposium and the ACTEC Foundation for its generous support.