Trust Reformation By Massachusetts’ Lower Courts Restrained

July 6, 2015

In recent years, courts in Massachusetts have been rather liberal in reforming trust to meet the expectations of the settlor even if proper creation procedure was not followed. But this trend might be on the wane following a case that had a will pouring into an existing trust that was later revoked then reestablished, with different terms, in the same year. However, state law at the time required the trust to be in existence before the will was executed and the termination of the first trust ultimately caused a lapse for the pour over provision.

At probate, the court ruled the failure to properly identify the new trust in the will a drafting error and allowed the pour over to proceed. However, the appeals court overturned the decision stating that reformation cannot take the place of actually executing the legal formalities, executing a new will or valid codicil in this instance, no matter what the intent of the testator might have been. Essentially, the court said that no matter how fair it might be to “reform” a document to meet the creator’s intent, if there is nothing valid to fix then the court is powerless to act.

See Luke Lantta, Trust Reformation Was Not A Remedy For Failing To Complete An Estate Plan, Bryan Cave Fiduciary Litigation, June 24, 2015.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.

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New Cases, Trusts and Wills