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

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Boston, MA 02108-4977, United States
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Is it a true trust if settlor has reserved a right to revoke it?

Classic equity doctrine. By the 1940s, it was settled law that a funded revocable inter vivos trust with multiple beneficiaries was a true trust. See Nat’l Shawmut Bnk v. Joy, 53 N.E.2nd 113 (1944). It was not merely a failed… more
 /  Commercial Law & Contracts, Constitutional Law, Finance & Banking, Law Practice Products & Services, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

A Trust-Instrument Scrivener’s Practical Guide to Avoiding the Problematic and Doctrinally Unsettled

The 2027 Edition of Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook, due out in mid-December of 2026, is a work in progress. Chapter 10 is being repurposed to house a one-stop digest and compilation for trust scriveners of the… more
 /  Administrative Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Commercial Law & Contracts, Law Practice Products & Services, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Amending Or Terminating The Revocable Inter Vivos Trust By Proxy: The Trustee-liability Issues Lurking In The Tangle Of Law-Reform Initiatives

Advisory: This posting assumes knowledge of the difference between a power of attorney and a power of appointment. A legally incompetent trust-settlor cannot exercise a reserved right of amendment or revocation. Recall that… more
 /  Civil Remedies, Commercial Law & Contracts, Law Practice Products & Services, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

A Private Charitable Donation Is To Be Made In Trust For The Collective Benefit Of A Municipality’s Citizens: Better The Title-Holding Trustee Be A Nongovernmental Entity Than The Municipality

Assume the citizen of a municipality donates his art collection to the municipality, not outright but in charitable trust, for display in a public museum. The city council constitutes a six-citizen “board” and delegates to the… more
 /  Administrative Law, Commercial Law & Contracts, Constitutional Law, Nonprofit Law, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

May one effectively add one’s personalty to the corpus of an inter vivos trust via gift causa mortis?

It has long been settled that one via a will may effectively “pour over” one’s real and personal property into an inter vivos trust. See §2.1.1 of Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook (2026), the relevant portions of which… more
 /  Commercial Law & Contracts, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Judicial imposition of a constructive trust on traceable property for benefit of a victim of unjust enrichment freezes property, insulates it from reach of creditors of others, and captures any appreciation

Assume wrongdoer procures title to a traceable portfolio of stocks by fraud, duress, or undue influence from rightful owner and then transfers title on to an innocent third party for nominal consideration, i.e. to a non-BFP. The… more
 /  Civil Procedure, Civil Remedies, Commercial Law & Contracts, Securities Law, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Traceable economic value of fraudulently acquired property may be made the subject of a constructive trust: Two procedural equitable remedies, tracing and constructive trust, working in tandem

Assume fraudulent representations by the owner of a residence with multiple hidden material defects that the defects were non-existent induce Jones to purchase residence. Call that residence the “old residence.” The unjustly… more
 /  Business Torts, Commercial Law & Contracts, Insurance, Real Estate - Residential, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

In breach-of-trust litigation where adequacy of fiduciary disclosure is in question, the trustee’s motion for summary judgment ought to fall on deaf ears

Assume trustee of an irrevocable inter vivos trust leases entrusted land to an entity that employs the trustee. All rents properly accrue to the trust estate. The beneficiaries assert, however, that the trustee may have engaged… more
 /  Civil Procedure, Commercial Law & Contracts, Constitutional Law, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision in the Johnson Trust Case (2025) is doctrinally nonsensical in that it is unsupported by equity doctrine, which defines and regulates the rights, duties, and obligations of the litigants

Assume a parcel of real estate was the subject of an irrevocable express trust until the trustee in breach of trust deeded the title to himself, ostensibly free of trust. Our self-dealing trustee is hereinafter referred to as… more
 /  Civil Procedure, Civil Remedies, Commercial Law & Contracts, Real Estate - Residential, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Invoking the equitable defense of acquiescence at the inception and appellate stages of trust litigation

The equitable defense of acquiescence, which rests upon the equitable doctrine of election, is available to a trustee if a beneficiary, fully apprised of all the relevant facts and law, of full age and legal capacity, and under… more
 /  Civil Procedure, Commercial Law & Contracts, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Will of recently deceased calls for creation of a testamentary trust whose dispositive terms shall mimic those of his revocable inter vivos trust: What if inter vivos trust had been revoked or voided?

At the intersection of incorporation-by-reference doctrine in the testamentary context and trust jurisprudence are several traps for unwary estate planners and trial lawyers. The doctrine sets forth conditions that must be met… more
 /  Civil Procedure, Commercial Law & Contracts, Constitutional Law, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Settlors of trust terms of which were affected by a mistake of law unsuccessfully brought a Uniform Trust Code §412 petition to terminate, though a §415 petition to reform perversely would have had a better chance of effecting a termination

This posting is about In Matter of Peterson Family Irrevocable Trust, 333 A.3d 453 (Penn. Super. 2025) and the general unawareness that apparently prevailed in the litigation of a relevant and critical provision of… more
 /  Civil Procedure, Real Estate - Residential, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

When trustee’s unauthorized self-dealing causes no direct harm to trust corpus can trustee still be surcharged?

Profit narrowly defined is total revenue minus total expenses, i.e., net gain. Profit broadly defined is merely a synonym for benefit. When a trustee’s unauthorized self-dealing directly harms the trust estate, the trustee is… more
 /  Civil Remedies, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Employing a trust-law hypothetical to illustrate the universal preliminary injunction’s incompatibility with equity doctrine that was flagged in Trump v. CASA

A federal trial judge in the course of adjudicating a controversy temporarily enjoins nationwide enforcement of a law. The universal preliminary injunction (UPI), however, is incompatible with the Anglo-American legal tradition… more
 /  Civil Procedure, Civil Remedies, Constitutional Law, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

An action brought by a trust beneficiary to remedy a breach of fiduciary duty ought not to trigger the trust’s in-terrorem clause, assuming there is one, unless brought in bad faith

A court should not enforce a trust in terrorem clause if its enforcement under the particular facts and circumstances would frustrate settlor intent. Assuming that the settlor intended to impress a trust upon the property, not… more
 /  Business Torts, Civil Remedies, Law Practice Products & Services, Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning
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