Current through the 2024 Regular Session
Section 91-8-503 - Discretionary interests; effect thereof(a) A discretionary interest is neither a property interest nor an enforceable right; it is a mere expectancy.(b) Relative to a discretionary interest, whether or not a trust contains a spendthrift provision:(1) A creditor or assignee cannot force or otherwise reach a distribution with regard to a discretionary interest;(2) A creditor or assignee cannot require a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary to exercise the trustee's, cotrustee's or other fiduciary's discretion to make a distribution with regard to a discretionary interest;(3) Whether or not a beneficiary has any outstanding creditors or assignees, a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary of a discretionary interest may directly pay any expense on behalf of the beneficiary and may exhaust the income and principal of the trust for the benefit of the beneficiary;(4) A trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary is not liable to any creditor or assignee for paying the expenses of a beneficiary of a discretionary interest;(5)(A) Whether or not a beneficiary holding a discretionary interest is also a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary, subsections (b)(1) through (4) remain applicable if:(i) The beneficiary-fiduciary does not have the discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary;(ii) The beneficiary-fiduciary's discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary is limited by an ascertainable standard; or(iii) The beneficiary-fiduciary's discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary is exercisable only with the consent of a cotrustee or another person holding an adverse interest.(B) A creditor or assignee may compel or otherwise reach a distribution only to the extent the creditor or assignee may compel or otherwise reach a distribution if the beneficiary was not acting as a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary.Added by Laws, 2020, ch. 406, SB 2851,§ 61, eff. 7/1/2020.