Beneficiary of specific property sold by conservator is entitled to proceeds remaining at the settlor’s death. The settlors created a revocable trust to terminate on their deaths and the successor trustee was to distribute specific real property to their son, other specific property to their daughters, and the remainder to the daughters. After the father’s death, the mother’s conservator sold the real property given to son under a court order to obtain funds to pay for the mother’s care. At the time of the mother’s death, the trust held only cash. The trial court ordered the cash distributed to the daughters under the clause disposing of the remainder of the trust property. The son appealed and the intermediate appellate court reversed, holding that the sale by the conservator adeemed the specific gift only to the extent the proceeds of the sale were used to support the settlor and that the son was entitled to the balance of the cash that could be traced to the sale of the property specifically given to him.
See In re Estate of Honse, No. SD 31853, 2013 WL 394708 (Mo. Ct. App. Feb. 1, 2013).
Special thanks to William LaPiana (Professor of Law, New York Law School) for bringing this case to my attention.
