Law Commons^™

Trust Decanting: A Critical Perspective, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

Until recently, a party seeking modification of an irrevocable trust needed approval from all interested parties, or from a court. The last decade, however, has brought a flood of state legislation authorizing trust decanting – a process by which a trustee “decants” trust assets from one vessel (the original irrevocable trust) into a second vessel (a new trust with terms designed to reflect the settlor’s supposed intent). Most recently, the Uniform Law Commissioners have, in 2015, promulgated the Uniform Trust Decanting Act.Decanting enable trustees and trust beneficiaries to avoid the cost associated with judicial modification in cases where the irrevocable …