legislation: 105-hr-4325
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| 105-hr-4325 | 105 | hr | 4325 | Indian Trust Estate Planning and Land Title Management Improvement Act | Native Americans | 1998-07-23 | 1998-07-24 | Executive Comment Requested from Interior. | House | Rep. Young, Don [R-AK-At Large] | AK | R | Y000033 | 0 | TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Estate Planning Title II: Trust Land Records Management Title III: Real Estate Transactions Title IV: Financial Assistance Title V: Probate Title VI: General Provisions Indian Trust Estate Planning and Land Title Management Improvement Act - Title I: Estate Planning - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to establish an estate planning program to assist Indian landowners to facilitate the transfer of lands to specific heirs. (Sec. 103) Requires the Secretary to provide to each Indian landowner a report that lists, with respect to each tract of trust or restricted land (lands subject to Federal restrictions on alienation) in which the landowner has an interest: (1) the tract of land involved; (2) each co-owner; and (3) the percentage of ownership of each owner. (Sec. 104) Directs the Secretary to provide for estate planners, outreach workers, appraisers, realty and credit staff, and certified surveyors to carry out this Act. Title II: Trust Land Records Management - Requires the Secretary to promote the formation of a computerized land ownership records and payment dispersal system at the local level to enable tribes and individual Indians to: (1) evaluate and implement plans to consolidate fractionated titles; (2) certify title status reports for mortgages, probates, appraisals, and other land transactions; (3) provide an accounting of the land held by Indian landowners to assist in land consolidation and estate planning; and (4) reduce the number of ownership records. (Sec. 203) Directs the Secretary to provide for the design and administration of local land records systems by making funds available to a tribally approved agency or organization. Requires such agency to serve as the archive for tribal land records and the daily use and maintenance of the records to be carried out at the local level. Applies standards consistent with law relating to fiduciary duties to such system and subjects records to audits. (Sec. 204) Requires the Secretary to make grants to tribes, landowner associations, and lease councils to assist in the development of programs for the creation and maintenance of accurate and accessible land ownership databases. Title III: Real Estate Transactions - Authorizes tribes to adopted fractionated land consolidation plans that address fractionation by providing for the sale and exchange of interests in trust or restricted lands for purposes of consolidating fractionated title. Makes a plan inapplicable if the owners of at least 50 percent of the interest in the land file an objection with the Secretary to all or any part of a plan. Applies requirements of this title relating to real estate transactions to trust and restricted lands. (Sec. 303) Requires appraisals for land transactions under this title unless the transferor of the interest in trust or restricted land waives such requirement. Sets forth additional requirements for appraisals. Directs the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) or a tribe to maintain a database on real estate transactions involving trust tribes and make such database available to appraisers, tribes, and landowners to assist in determinations of fair market value of interests in trust or restricted land and other land valuations. (Sec. 304) Authorizes the sale or exchange for an interest in trust or restricted land to be for an amount or exchange value less than fair market value. Requires any land sold or exchanged to remain trust or restricted land. Sets forth rights of purchase with respect to the sale or exchange of interest to a lineal descendant of the original allottee of the land, co-owner, tribal member, or tribe. Grants first right of purchase to lineal descendants of the original allottee. Authorizes Indian landowners to gift deed an interest to their tribe or another Indian. Provides that gift deeds shall not require appraisals or that the grantee be a lineal descendant. (Sec. 305) Sets forth provisions regarding petitions for patents in fee for trust or restricted land. Establishes a hierarchy of persons entitled to leaseback and buyback rights in cases where a default under a federally approved lending program on a loan secured by trust or restricted land occurs. (Sec. 306) Authorizes Indian landowners to enter into agreements for purposes of managing and administering a lease in multiple ownership. (Sec. 307) Repeals specified provisions of the Indian Land Consolidation Act to conform with this Act. Title IV: Financial Assistance - Applies this title to Indian individuals and tribes that have in effect fractionated land consolidation plans. (Sec. 402) Makes funds available from a Land Acquisition Fund for acquisition of fractionated interests by Indian individuals and tribes through a lending program. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 403) Declares that funds appropriated within the Economic Development line item for the BIA will be used by the Secretary to make grants to tribes and individual Indians for the acquisition and consolidation of interests in fractionated trust or restricted lands. Title V: Probate - Applies this title to all trust or restricted lands administered by the United States. Authorizes tribes to elect to be exempt from this title's requirements by filing a final resolution with the Secretary. Authorizes tribes to enact tribal laws relating to inheritance to apply in lieu of this title's requirements, subject to the Secretary's approval. (Sec. 502) Provides that, with respect to the inheritance of trust or restricted lands: (1) inheritance by non-Indians shall be limited to receipt of a life estate, with remainder over to the next Indian heirs in line of inheritance; (2) non-Indian heirs-at-law shall receive a life estate to the extent of the intestate share determined; and (3) eligible non-Indian devisees shall receive a life estate in the full share devised to them by will. (Sec. 503) Bars the receipt of trust or restricted lands by devise other than by: (1) the decedent's heirs-at-law relatives within the first and second degree; or (2) members of the tribe, or the tribe, with jurisdiction over the lands devised. (Sec. 504) Grants surviving spouses of decedents without wills disposing of interests to a life estate in one-third of the interest. Sets forth provisions regarding succession in the event of a surviving spouse's death. (Sec. 505) Grants afterborn children, with respect to Indian testators who die without wills including such children where the omission is unintentional, a life estate in all trust or restricted assets of the estate in the amount of the intestate share. (Sec. 507) Sets forth provisions regarding customary adoptions of Alaska Natives and inheritance rights. Title VI: General Provisions - Exempts all lands acquired for Indians under this Act's authority from Federal, State, and county taxation. (Sec. 603) Requires the Secretary to waive any regulation pertaining to Indians that restricts the implementation of a tribal fractionated land consolidation plan. | 2025-08-21T16:14:23Z |