Planning and Administering Spendthrift Trusts in Tension with Public Policies

The Federal Government assesses a tax on assets that are gratuitously transferred to another person. Assets transferred during the donor's lifetime are subject to gift tax.

California recently enacted its decanting statute. The new law allows an authorized fiduciary to modify the terms of an irrevocable trust without the beneficiaries’ consent or court approval. Nevertheless, the settlor’s intent must be preserved, and no beneficiary can object. Here’s how the law compares to the Uniform Trust Decanting Act (UTDA) and other state decanting statutes.

Ryan will discuss a litigator’s perspective to conflicts that estate planners often encounter, including representing clients with mental capacity that may appear impaired, representing clients who want to make a gift to an individual identified in Probate Code section 21380 thereby invoking the presumption that the gift is the product of fraud or undue influence, and representing clients in circumstances where it appears a child or another may have undue influence over them, particularly where there are any questions of favoritism.