On July 29, 2013, in the case of Morse v. Kraft the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held that the Trustee of an irrevocable trust in which the Trustees had full discretion to distribute trust principal “for the benefit of” the beneficiary, could, without consent or court approval, distribute the assets to a different trust with the same effective discretionary terms but modified in several ways, the key difference being the ability of the beneficiaries to serve as trustees, a power that was prohibited in the original trust.
The case was brought by the sons of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to modify a thirty-year old trust. It will have far reaching impact.
The Facts:
In 1982, Plaintiff established the 1982 Trust, and four separate subtrusts therein, for the four sons of the Krafts. In 2012, Plaintiff, who had served as the sole and disinterested trustee of the trust and subtrusts, proposed to transfer all of the property of the subtrusts into new subtrusts established in accordance with the terms of a new master trust for the benefit of the Kraft sons. Plaintiff asked the Supreme Court to interpret the 1982 Trust to determine whether it authorized distributions to the new trust without the consent or approval of any beneficiary or court. The Supreme Court concluded that it did, holding that the terms of the 1982 Trust authorized Plaintiff to distribute the trust property in further trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries of the 1982 Trust without their consent or court approval.
Read the case here:
How about Pennsylvania?