Spendthrift Trusts in Texas

Camille N. Varner recently published her note entitled Is the Dead Hand Losing its Grip in Texas?: Spendthrift Trusts and In re Townley Bypass Unified Credit Trust, (252 S.W.3d 715), 62 Baylor L. Rev. 598 (2010). An excerpt from the introduction is below:

In In re Townley Bypass Unified Credit Trust, the Texarkana Court of Appeals considered a spendthrift trust beneficiary’s ability to devise a gift and in an analytically flawed opinion found the spendthrift provision unenforceable.  The Texas Supreme Court has denied review of Townley, thus opening the door for further confusion over spendthrift protection in Texas. While the Townley fact situation is decidedly unique, the fundamental spendthrift trust issues raised by Townley present the perfect opportunity to examine current Texas spendthrift law and the direction in which it is headed. This Note surveys the history and purpose of spendthrift trusts both in Texas and nationwide and then compares these findings to In re Townley Bypass Unified Credit Trust.