California’s New Uniform Trust Decanting Act

Last year, California enacted a uniform trust decanting law under Chapter 407 of the California Statutes. The new law allows “a fiduciary of an irrevocable trust may distribute the property of a first trust to one or more 2nd trusts or modify the terms of the first trust without the consent of the beneficiaries or approval of the court, subject to certain exceptions.”

The California Commission on Uniform State Laws (CCUSL) is the source of the new law, and the Commission is part of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. The CCUSL is required to “do all in its power to promote uniformity in state laws upon all subjects where uniformity is deemed desirable and practicable.”

See Keith Paul Bishop, California’s New Uniform Trust Decanting Act, National Law Review, May 2, 2019.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.) for bringing this article to my attention.