News & Analysis as of May 4, 2025

Estate Planning › Uniform Trust Code

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Estate Planning is a process where individuals prepare or plan for the settlement of their personal affairs in the event of incapacitation or death. Estate plans typically include provisions relating to the disposition of assets, guardianship of minor children, and appointment of representatives to make medical and financial decisions. Effective estate planning can decrease tax liability and facilitate the probate process. less -

To Lawyers Who Refer Clients to Estate-Planning Attorneys Who Act as Professional Trustees: Beware the Uniform Trust Code’s...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 4/29/2025

Consider the lawyer who lacks a working familiarity with trusts, and with estate planning generally. He prudently and ethically refers a client in need of an estate plan to a well-respected lawyer who also happens also to be...more

Parsing the Uniform Trust Code in Isolation Without Regard to the Uniform Probate Code and the Uniform Powers of Appointment Act...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 3/25/2025

Intro. The Uniform Trust Code (UTC) is a mere aggregation of tweaks to the corner of equity jurisprudence that long ago gave birth to and currently stewards the trust relationship, hereinafter “the background trust law.”...more

When Hostilities Break Out Between Co-trustees, Where Does That Leave Trust Counsel?

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 3/11/2025

When hostilities break out between individual co-trustees, incumbent trust counsel faces a representation conundrum. In §8.8 of Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook (2025), see appendix below, we grapple with the...more

Individual Trustee Delegates to Financial Institution the Job of Taking Custody and Keeping Track of Income and Principal: The...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 2/18/2025

While PC software programs are a practical improvement over the trustee’s hard-copy ledger book, when it comes to keeping track of trust income and principal these programs still require serious clerical monitoring on the...more

Due to scrivener negligence, the dispositive provisions of a trust fail to reflect the deceased settlor’s wishes: Can it be that...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 1/22/2025

Assume the deceased settlor of a trust had intended that his niece be included in the beneficiary class, but his estate-planning attorney had negligently made no provision for her in the governing instrument. After settlor’s...more

When virtual representation is not an option in trust-reformation litigation

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 12/2/2024

In an external contract-based or tort-based dispute between the trustee and a third party to the trust relationship, the beneficiaries are generally not necessary parties. But all beneficiaries (of an irrev. trust) whose...more

The Uniform Trust Code inadvertently puts a bullseye on the trustee’s doctrinally indispensable affirmative duty to furnish all...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 10/15/2024

Many of my prior JDSUPRA postings caution that codification of the law of trusts, such as the Uniform Trust Code (UTC), are only partial codifications. See the catalogue of my prior postings below. There is much prevailing...more

Equity’s maxims have many jurisprudential functions, one critical function being to sinew the equitable principles that regulate...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 9/23/2024

Equity’s maxims have many jurisprudential functions, one critical function being to sinew the equitable principles that regulate the law of trusts. A court that is saddled with sorting out the rights, duties and obligations...more

Wealth Management Update - September 2024 - 2

Proskauer Rose LLP on 9/13/2024

September 2024 AFRs and 7520 Rate - The September 2024 Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs, QPRTs and GRATs is 4.8%, a decrease from the August 2024 rate of 5.2%. The September...more

Silent Trusts Have Come to Michigan

Warner Norcross + Judd on 9/11/2024

Recently, Michigan added a new section to the trust code, making it possible for trust settlors to create “quiet” or “silent” trusts in Michigan. As the name implies, in a silent trust arrangement, a trustee is not required...more

Wealth Management Update - September 2024

Proskauer Rose LLP on 9/6/2024

The September 2024 Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs, QPRTs and GRATs is 4.8%, a decrease from the August 2024 rate of 5.2%. The September applicable federal rate (“AFR”) for use...more

Whether an equitable power of appointment incident to a trust relationship is “in gross” or “collateral”: The practical...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 8/20/2024

Section 17.3, comment f, of the Restatement (Third) of Property (Wills and Other Donative Transfers) explains the difference between a collateral power of appointment and a power of appointment in gross: “In traditional...more

Tennessee Trust Bill Takes Effect and Makes Important Changes to the State's Trust Laws

Holland & Knight LLP on 7/10/2024

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee approved Public Chapter No. 695 on April 11, 2024, as passed by the Tennessee General Assembly (Trust Bill). The new law became effective on July 1, 2024, and it made several important changes to...more

Creating a nonvoidable domestic asset protection trust (DAPT) that has multijurisdictional contacts: The state and federal...

Charles E. Rounds, Jr. - Suffolk University... on 6/3/2024

Creating a domestic asset protection trust (DAPT) that both has multijurisdictional contacts and is nonvoidable in whole or in part is easier said than done. There are the state conflict-of-laws issues, a few of which I...more

Trust Issues in Divorce Proceedings - Presentation - May 2023

Winstead PC on 5/9/2023

David F. Johnson presented to the Tarrant County Probate Bar Association on May 4, 2023, on the topic of “Trust Issues in Divorce Proceedings.” This program discussed some of the many trust issues that arise in divorce...more

Probate & Fiduciary Litigation Newsletter - February 2023

Goulston & Storrs PC on 1/31/2023

Trust v. Code: What Trumps? Matter of the Leo Kahn Revocable Trust, 102 Mass. App. Ct. 38 (2022) - If the terms of a trust instrument are inconsistent with a provision of the Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code (“MUTC” or...more

Corporate Trustee’s Statements May Suffice For A Statutory Accounting

Winstead PC on 9/23/2021

Trust beneficiaries often request a corporate trustee to prepare a statutory accounting. The Texas Trust Code in Section 113.151 provides that a beneficiary may request a written statement of accounts....more

Wealth Management Update - September 2020

Proskauer Rose LLP on 9/3/2020

September Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intrafamily Loans and Split Interest Charitable Trusts - The September Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs,...more

When are Termination Fees Reasonable?

Holland & Hart LLP on 1/14/2020

Professional trustees and financial institutions acting as trustees often include a “termination fee” as part of their published fee schedules. Contrary to the name’s suggestion, a trustee might charge the fee not only at...more

Personal Planning Strategies - December 2019

Proskauer Rose LLP on 11/27/2019

Estate, Gift and GST Tax Update - What This Means for Your Current Will, Revocable Trust and Estate Plan - The estate and gift tax regimes have been permanent and unified since the passage of The American Taxpayer...more

Wealth Management Update - September 2019

Proskauer Rose LLP on 9/9/2019

September 2019 Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split-Interest Charitable Trusts - The September Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs,...more

Trustees of Revocable Trusts May Owe Duties to Contingent Beneficiaries

McDermott Will & Emery on 8/15/2019

Revocable trusts are a ubiquitous part of modern US estate planning because they avoid the delay, cost and publicity inherent in probate administration and, in the international context, because of the certainty they provide...more

Reminder – Mandatory Notice Provisions in CUTC

Holland & Hart LLP on 5/16/2019

As we have just passed the one-year anniversary of the CUTC being signed into law, now seems like an appropriate time to go over a few reminders with regards to its mandatory provisions – in particular the Notice provisions. ...more

Lessons to be Learned From the Power of Attorney

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on 1/20/2017

Powers of attorney and trust instruments have each been the subject of many an estate plan. They each have also been the subject of multiple estate litigations. In combination, the two have served as fodder for controversies...more

New Jersey Enacts Uniform Trust Code

Saul Ewing LLP on 8/30/2016

On July 17, 2016, New Jersey’s version of the Uniform Trust Code became effective. The objective of the Uniform Trust Code, which has now been enacted in approximately 30 states, is to provide more certainty for...more

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Estate Planning › Uniform Trust Code

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