A Misleading Article in the Wall Street Journal (Weekend Investor) Suggesting that Social Security is a Funded Pension Plan.

When the residue of a probate estate is to pour over into an inter vivos trust, when does the property become a trust asset?

May agent of dying settlor of revocable inter vivos trust effectively transfer to trustee via general assignment title to any property of settlor that may be found in a certain safe deposit box?

How a trustee’s unwarranted and open repudiation of the trust could result in the time barring of a breach-of-trust action brought later against the trustee

From the negligible to the significant: The role of trustees in the geopolitics of the Middle East, the British Empire, and Europe

Whether juries should be finders-of-fact in trust-modification proceedings: The saga of the Troy S. Poe Trust continues

The limited shelf lives of such trust-law partial codifications as the uniform principal and income acts

To parse or not to parse the Uniform Trust Code in jurisprudential isolation: What would Justinian and Coke have advised?

The trustee’s general duty to account to nonqualified beneficiaries is regulated by general principles of equity, not the Uniform Trust Code: A critique of Schwalm v. Schwalm (2023)

When it is too late to commence a proceeding to contest the validity of a trust that was revocable at the settlor’s death: End-running the Uniform Trust Code’s short statute of limitations

Why probate fiduciaries still need a working knowledge of the purchase-money resulting trust and its functional equivalent

Can an executed agreement purporting to settle nonjudicially a trustee’s accounts be final and binding absent compliance with the material-purpose doctrine, a.k.a Claflin doctrine?

A trust may well be unenforceable and thus illusory if its trustee is the United States or a U.S. state

When a written informed consent to a lawyer’s or trustee’s self-dealing may not be worth the paper it is written on

If the settlor of a trust had been coerced into creating it, is trust the product of duress or of undue influence?

When the trustee also is the beneficiary’s priest, professor, adult child, or physician: The loyalty considerations

Even when statute law permits inclusion in inter vivos trust instruments of in terrorem (no-contest) clauses, equity will have the last word when it comes to enforceability.

Only the trust, as opposed to the will, can facilitate the inter vivos bestowal on others of vested yet retrievable property rights in one’s property

Would a devise to the trustee of an inter vivos trust lapse or fail if so-called trust lacked property at time of testator’s death?

Is the property of a trust accessible to the settlor’s future creditors?

Intersection of fraudulent conveyance doctrine and the law of trusts

Entity Shielding and Capital Lock-in: The Business Trust versus the Corporation

Through at least the 1920s (U.S.), the business trust was a ubiquitous “regulation-light” alternative to the corporate form, which remains the case to this day in the mutual-fund space particularly

If terms of a terminated trust fail to specify what now happens to subject property, does the trustee get to keep the property for himself? If not, to whom should title now pass?

John Singleton Copley, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b.1772-d.1863), a.k.a. 1st Baron Lyndhurst: Not to be confused with his father, the Anglo-American portrait painter

The trust being a creature of equity, the Uniform Trust Code rightly defers in spirit to the maxim “Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form”

The law of trusts and the fiduciary conundrum of ESG-investing politics

Asset securitization, multi-generational asset management over time, and allocation of an asset’s exposure to creditor reach: Just a few of the myriad functions that the classic trust can perform

One court fails to consider trustee’s non-statutory duty to carry out settlor’s wishes as manifested in trust’s terms, a duty that encompasses defending those terms

It is all about 1066: Why the trust regimes of two seasoned offshore trust jurisdictions, Guernsey and Jersey, are not indigenous

The very institution of the trust being a creature of judicial precedent, not statute, Melville’s caricature in Moby-Dick of precedent would seem as superficial as it is lyrical

As late as 1939 it had not been universally self-evident that entrusted property subject to an unexercised general power of appointment ought to be subject to the federal estate tax

The fiduciary conundrum inherent in the Uniform Trust Code’s version of the purpose trust

State law and the right to a jury trial in trust litigation: Blurring the line between law and equity

Judge Alice M. Batchelder endeavors to limit via a dissenting opinion the damage one federal appellate court has surely done to the institution of the trust.

Equity’s ancient good-faith-purchaser-for-value-without-notice (BFP) doctrine plays a critical role in trust jurisprudence to this day: The practical considerations

Centuries ago the absence of full donative intent inherent in a gift to a “use” sparked the evolution of resulting-trust doctrine, an indispensable component of modern-day trust jurisprudence

Absent a history of meticulous fiduciary recordkeeping and asset segregation, trusteeship can bring with it some serious personal financial risk for the trustee who is divorcing his/her spouse

What does it take for a gratuitous declaration of trust to be enforceable?

The myriad trust applications of equity's maxims have in no way been rendered obsolete by the Uniform Trust Code.

In a matter involving the internal affairs of a trust may trust counsel simultaneously represent not only the trustee but also any otherwise unrepresented beneficiaries?

Echoes of the Doctrine of Worthier Title in current trust law

A trust in mid-course is declared void ab initio by the equity court: What now happens to the property?

Merger Doctrine, the Common Trust Fund, the Trusteed Mutual Fund, Common-Fund Doctrine, Combining Trusts, Common Fund of Related Sub-trusts: Which is not about trust investing?

Vulnerability of a trust that had been revocable and funded by settlor inter vivos to postmortem spousal election generally subject to “exhaustion” of settlor’s probate estate, which may never happen

Statutes of limitations applicable to breach-of-trust actions tweak traditional laches doctrine, not the other way around

The contingent remainder beneficiaries of an irrevocable trust may seek judicial enforcement of its terms during the life of the trust

Remedying wrongful interferences in the making of gifts, whether outright or in trust: Equity’s venerable unjust enrichment jurisprudence, not tort law, is where to start.

As to trust disputes, arbitrators, unlike the equity courts, cannot be expected to act sua sponte in vindication of the lawful intentions of settlors who are not before them

Is a trust term directing that internal trustee-beneficiary fiduciary disputes be arbitrated judicially enforceable?

The equity court is there for the trustee as well as the beneficiaries

When adjudicating trust disputes, the equity courts are duty-bound to act, sua sponte if necessary, in vindication of the lawful intentions of settlors

The Doctrine of Renvoi may still have some relevance in the trust context

Tracing and recovering real estate wrongfully removed from trusts: End-running the full-faith-and-credit obstacle

A message to the Divorce Bar: The constructive trust and the resulting trust are creatures of and regulated by general principles of equity, not the Uniform Trust Code

Good luck to the trustee who would endeavor to forge beneficiary-consensus as to ESG Investing objectives

The poor excuse for a tort that lurks in the Uniform Trust Code’s certificate-of-trust regime

Is the Uniform Trust Code’s generous reformation section, specifically §415, prying open the litigation floodgates as predicted?

The Uniform Trust Code’s qualified-beneficiary concept confuses yet another court

The marginalization of English equity, the trust relationship, and the fiduciary principle generally by law academics (U.S.), the bench (U.S.), and the organized bar (U.S.)

Trust-protector jurisprudence lurks not just in statute, the trust being a creature of equity

Whether nonfiduciary trusts and quiet trusts are true trusts

Third-party liability for knowingly participating in a breach of trust

Equity’s doctrine of unclean hands still has serious teeth, at least in the world of trusts (Part 2)

The Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT) and the Full Faith and Credit Clause: Some practical considerations

At the intersection of black-letter contract, property, and equity doctrine: In re Citibank August 11, 2020 Wire Transfers, 2021 WL 1652171 (2021).

Trustees and the privilege against self-incrimination

The fiduciary exception to the attorney-client privilege in the trust context

Some non-US trust jurisdictions may not recognize the revocable inter vivos trust

Employing the term spouse in trust instruments: An unambiguous term can still be “textually” ambiguous

A contingent remainderman's interest under an irrevocable trust: More than a mere expectancy

Equity's doctrine of unclean hands still has serious teeth, at least in the world of trusts

In a declaratory judgment or instructions action to determine intended beneficiaries of a trust and/or their relative equitable interests, should trustee defend its terms as written or take no sides?

The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that ERISA negated in its sphere of pre-emption a traditional protection afforded property rights incident to the trust relationship

Clarifying Justice Marshall’s contract-based constitutional analysis in Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, which confirmed that the cy pres power is a judicial prerogative.

Recourse at law or in equity of trust beneficiary who is dissatisfied with trustee’s proposed settlement with insurance company of property-damage claim

But the Uniform Trust Code leaves in place critical equity doctrine, such as unjust enrichment jurisprudence: Litigators beware.

Benge v. Roberts: But an enforceable exculpatory clause in a trust should not always be the last word

Mackey v. Santander Bank, N.A: Yes, but applicable trust law lurks not just in the Uniform Trust Code

Hunter v. Hunter, Trustee, 838 S.E.2d 721 (Va. 2020): A valuable contribution to in terrorem/no-contest jurisprudence in the context of trusts

Is the Uniform Trust Code’s 5-year ultimate-repose feature even constitutional?

Draining the marital trust first in the face of different remaindermen: What about the trustee’s duty of impartiality?

COVID-19 and the non-notarial execution of wills in Massachusetts

The seemingly endless succession of trust principal and income acts: To what end when we have a robust equity jurisprudence?

Ademption by satisfaction in the trust context

When a current trust beneficiary is temporarily lacking: What should be done with income accruing during hiatus?

The dark side of codification in the trust space

Confusion reigns as to the nature of a current permissible beneficiary’s equitable property rights under a fully discretionary trust

A self-settled fully discretionary trust: May the settlor-beneficiary’s postmortem creditors reach the entrusted property?

One Illinois court misconstrues and misapplies long-settled merger doctrine in the trust context

The residual fiduciary duties of a removed trustee

Representing a trustee who is also a beneficiary, but not the only beneficiary

The retroactive application of judicial decrees and legislation to pre-existing irrevocable trusts

Two landmark trust cases dueling at the intersection of the charitable and the political

Extracting slavery reparations from private interests: Laches and other such equitable defenses

Information to which a trust protector or trust director is entitled.

Has the Uniform Trust Code's liberal facilitation of mistake-based reformations rendered the cy pres action obsolete?

The Uniform Trust Code has no time for guardians ad litem

In the estate-tax-apportionment space, Trust A's beneficiary and Trust B's can be in an involuntary debtor-creditor relationship and one trust's trustee in an involuntary agency relationship

Synchronizing the will and will substitute via the Uniform Probate Code and the Uniform Trust Code: Whatever for and how is it coming along?

Those who would dilute the trustee's duty of undivided loyalty

Reversionary interests are always vested

The spendthrift trust: Its doctrinal underpinnings

Arbitration contracts between trustees and their investment agents (II): An article and a case that crossed in the mail

Sveen v. Melin: Retroactive application of statute revoking upon divorce spousal life-insurance-beneficiary designations upheld by U.S. Supreme Court

Arbitration Contracts Between Trustees and Their Investment Agents: A Warning Label

All doubts are resolved against the trustee who fails to keep adequate records, except in Texas

Nonjudicial agreements between and among trust beneficiaries: The UTC/UPC overlap

Parsing "to my issue in equal shares per stirpes" in trust instruments

A Parsing of the Newly-Minted Uniform Directed Trust Act

Accountant liability in the trust context

Missing the trust issue: Litigators beware

Could seeking judicial enforcement of a trust's no-contest clause implicate the state's anti-SLAPP statute?

Ferri v. Powell-Ferri: A trust decanting decision that is less than meets the eye (Part II)

Does a removed trustee have a duty to see to it that the fiduciary reins are assumed by a qualified successor?

Trust Protectors, Trust Directors, and the Uniform Directed Trust Act

May a vindicated trustee be reimbursed personally from the trust estate even for those defense costs that were covered by his liability-insurance carrier?

Litigating trust matters in the federal courts (U.S.): A jurisdiction primer

Allowing in parol evidence as to a trust-settlor's intent: Construing trust terms versus reforming them

Residual liability in the trust context of excluded fiduciaries

Ferri v. Powell-Ferri: A trust decanting decision that is less than meets the eye

Would equity deem an enforceable irrevocable power of attorney (IPA) to be a trust rather than an agency?

Protections afforded to Massachusetts' ancient burial grounds

Can it be that in Nevada a trustee by statute may now decant an income-only trust into a trust whose trustee has current principal-invasion authority?

The Uniform Trust Decanting Act's conflicting commentary

The public policy case against retroactively applying new trust law

A controversy is brewing over whether a Hungarian trust is a true trust, or just a type of contract

Has the non-commercial trust relationship for the most part managed to avoid the cross hairs of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)?

May the donee of a limited testamentary power of appointment irrevocably and immediately exercise it inter vivos by contract?

Another rejection of the intent-defeating, sole-benefit-of-the-beneficiaries principle, the policy centerpiece of the Uniform Trust Code

Sole interest or best interest: Equity's traditional default loyalty principle is under attack

The financial advisor who sells a trustee an insurance contract that is inappropriate in light of the trust's purposes risks primary fiduciary liabilty in equity to non-contracting parties

Is there a practical difference between Equitable Deviation and Cy Pres when it comes to seeking modification under the Uniform Trust Code of a charitable trust's administrative term?

May a trustee with discretionary authority to make principal distributions ever decant for the sole purpose of increasing his/her/its compensation?

Employing the term "family" in trust instruments and trust-related legislation is asking for trouble

Beware of conflating power of appointment doctrine and merger doctrine in the trust context

Conflating tax law and trust law: The strange case of Ciampa v. Bank of America.

A permissible beneficiary's equitable property interest under an irrevocable discretionary trust is contingent, not vested, the divorce case of Pfannenstiehl vs. Pfannenstiehl notwithstanding

Is a Hungarian trust a clone of the Anglo-American trust, or just a type of contract?: Parsing the asset-management provisions of the New Hungarian Civil Code.

Whether the trust relationship should be fundamentally transmogrified into a juristic entity/person

A trust is not an agency

The Crummey trust: Keeping both the IRS and the creditors at bay is taking some fancy footwork

Why trustees need to know something about will residue clauses

Trust Law’s Material Purpose Doctrine, the Traditional Protector of Settlor-Intent is Under Attack: The TEDRA Factor

Does the trustee who socially invests entrusted funds breach his/her/its fiduciary duty of undivided loyalty, absent express authority to do so in the trust’s terms?

The Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code: Context, Content, and Critique

The liability of a trustee who honors a fraudulent exercise of a power of appointment

Guarding against a Trust's Destruction by Merger

Neither the non-charitable corporation, itself, nor its directors hold the corporate assets in trust, absent special facts.

Is a human corpse property that can be made the subject of a trust?

The fiduciary exception to the attorney-client privilege: A recent development

The enforceability of a trust accounting clause’s failure-to-object provision (the non-judicial settlement of trustees’ accounts)

Does the settlor of a trust have standing to seek its enforcement in the courts?

The confusion being engendered by the Uniform Trust Code’s default trust-revocation methodologies (§ 602(c)).

Is a quiet (silent) trust illusory?

Could it be that the Uniform Trust Code would effectively immunize the trustee of a revocable inter vivos trust from liability for his breaches of trust?

Why infect the law of trusts with good faith doctrine?

The charitable corporation: A trust in disguise?

The constructive general inter vivos power of appointment: A trap for the unwary trustee and his counsel

The Uniform Trust Code’s stealth attack on the Trustee’s time-honored duty to defend his trust

Discerning the true settlor of a trust

A valid Massachusetts testamentary trust may now arise under a will that was not fully executed (signed by the will witnesses) until an unspecified time after the death of the testator-settlor.

The trust decanting statutes: Nuisances that should be repealed.

Old Doctrine Misunderstood, New Doctrine Misconceived: Deconstructing the Newly-Minted Restatement (Third) of Property’s Power of Appointment Sections

Nowadays a Practicing Lawyer’s First Serious Exposure to Critical Unjust Enrichment Doctrine is Likely to be After Law School, Too Bad.

The Anglo-American Trust is Powerful and Nimble, but not a Magician

LAW SCHOOLS NO LONGER ADEQUATELY EQUIP THEIR STUDENTS TO THINK LIKE LAWYERS: THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF DECONTEXTUALIZING CONTRACTS

The Fiction of Social Security Bonds

Social Security Legally Is Just a Government Welfare Program

In-House Law Clinics versus Doctrinal Instruction

Bricks without Straw: The Sorry State of American Legal Education

Structuring Mutual Funds in the U.S., England, Germany & Luxembourg

Madoff Ponzi Scheme and the Sub-Prime Mortgage Securitization Debacle: The State Common Law Aspects

Build a custom email digest by following topics, people, and firms published on JD Supra.

Written by:

Published In:

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University Law School on:

A Misleading Article in the Wall Street Journal (Weekend Investor) Suggesting that Social Security is a Funded Pension Plan.

Related Posts

Written by:

Published In:

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University Law School on:

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"