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

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University Law School
Contact

One court has characterized the equitable interest as vested. See Pfannenstiehl v Pfannenstiehl (I), 88 Mass. App. Ct. 121 (2015). Wrong. See Pfannenstiehl v. Pfannenstiehl (II), 475 Mass. 105 (2016). The property interest is contingent, the critical condition precedent being that trustee elects to make distributions of income and/or principal. On the other hand, one English commentator has characterized such an interest as “future property.” See Lewin ¶2-35. But this characterization also is wrong. A contingent equitable property interest is not an expectancy. It is a present property interest that is subject to at least one condition precedent, such as conception/birth, survivorship, or the exercise of trustee discretion. Thus, it would not be wrong, though ill-advised, to say that at the time of settlement contingent equitable property rights vested in the permissible beneficiaries. In other words, contingent interests were acquired at settlement, the acquisition itself not being subject to any conditions precedent." The vesting of interests under trusts is taken up generally in §8.2.1.3 of Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook (2020), which section is reproduced in the Appendix below.

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University Law School | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University Law School
Contact
more
less

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

Reporters on Deadline

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

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide