Changing Trust Laws

• Author: Seymour Goldberg
• Profession: Senior partner in the law firm of Goldberg & Goldberg, P.C., in Woodbury, New York
• Pages: 3-4

Perhaps the next headache for a trust is the fact that there are periodic

revisions of the state trust laws that often clarify, expand, or change the

obligations of a trustee. Unfortunately, many trustees are not experts in

trust law and may not know that the trust laws in their state have changed.

The trustee may be a successful businessperson or professional, but he

or she may not have the time or the inclination to study the trust docu-

ment or meet with a trust attorney from time to time to determine his

or her trustee obligations. Many trust documents are extremely complex.

In general, once the trust is activated, the trustee tends to go it alone

and assumes that the state trust laws remain constant. However, state

trust laws do not remain constant. In addition, the courts are constantly

interpreting the meaning and the terms of trust documents, especially if

the document is confusing and ambiguous.

Often, the trust beneciaries haul the trustee into court because they

feel that they have been shortchanged and treated unfairly.

Trust litigation and estate litigation is big business. Catching a sleepy

and sloppy trustee on technical violations is not a difcult assignment for

an experienced trust litigator.

A signicant problem for a trustee exists when he or she relies on an

adviser who may not know that the state trust laws have been changed

or modied in the state that determines the interpretation of the trust’s

provisions.

Many states have adopted, for example, a revised version of the Uni-

form Principal and Income Act (UPAIA). These trust laws for the most

part apply to existing trusts and newly formed trusts as well. The trust

laws of the particular state must be checked in order to determine the

effective date of the UPAIA in that particular state. The UPAIA denes

how accounting income and principal are determined. It also explains how

disbursements are treated and whether the disbursements are payable from

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CHANGING TRUST LAWS