Court refuses to enforce semi-secret trust

The testator’s will gave the residue of the estate to drafter of the will “to be distributed in accordance with the specific instructions I have provided him.”  The testator gave verbal instructions and after her death a note in her handwriting was found which repeated the instructions.

In Pickelner v. Adler, 229 S.W.3d 516 (Tex. App. 2007), the court affirmed the trial court’s decision that the residue passed via intestacy, holding that the language created a semi-secret trust which cannot be enforced through a constructive trust, expressly rejecting Restatement (Third), Trusts, § 18(1) as contrary to well-established Texas law.