Research in focus: Adam Hofri-Winogradow

Name:

Adam Hofri-Winogradow

My pronouns:

he/him

Title:

Professor

Faculty/Department/Unit:

Peter A. Allard School of Law

Location:

Vancouver

Year I started working at UBC:

2023

Provide an overview of your research in 75 words or less:

I look into how and why people use trusts. Trusts provide legal means for avoiding rules of law you don't want to obey, such as taxes, means tests deciding access to benefits, or the law governing distribution of family property between divorcing or separating spouses or cohabitants. That sounds bad, until you realize that the legal loopholes trusts allow are sometimes people's only shot at survival.

What first motivated you (or motivates you) to conduct your research?

The outstanding extent of liberty and flexibility trusts provide.

Are there any research collaborators you'd like to acknowledge and why?

I have for years enjoyed fruitful collaboration with Prof. Mark Bennett of the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Mark's social conscience, theoretical depth and efficiency are wonderful.

What have you learned during your research that has surprised you the most?

That US states, not Caribbean or pacific islands, lead the world in the extent to which they've transformed their trust laws to appeal to potential users.

Describe any interesting research milestones you are approaching

I am one of a team of co-editors on the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Trust Laws, the most comprehensive collection ever produced about the trust laws of different nations. Different nations' trust laws are often very different; those differences are often introduced by lawmakers in different countries in order to attract trust users to have their trusts governed by the laws of this or that country.