Kentucky: Uncertainty & the Longmeyer Decision

Turney P. Berry (attorney, Louisville, Kentucky), David M. English (professor of law, University of Missouri), & Dana G. Fitzsimons, Jr. (associate, Mcguire Woods) have published their article entitled Longmeyer Exposes (or Creates) Uncertainty About the Duty to Inform Remainder Beneficiaries of a Revocable Trust, 35 Am. C of Trust and Estate Counsel J. 125 (2009).

A synopsis of the article is below:

This article discusses the surprising Longmeyer decision, handed down by the Supreme Court of Kentucky earlier this year, in which a predecessor trustee was held to have a duty to give certain notifications of former remainder beneficiaries of a revocable trust.  The authors then examine how Longmeyer might have been decided in other states and under other statutory schemes.  The article concludes with observations concerning when certain notices to trust beneficiaries may be conductive to effective trust administration and suggestions to those who administer trusts on how to best comply with beneficiary notice requirements.