Court Holds Trust May Be Reformed to Insert Beneficiaries

According to the recent Florida case, Megiel-Rollo v. Megiel, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 5601 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2d Dist. Apr. 17, 2015), a trust can be reformed to add beneficiaries when the trust initially fails to include any beneficiaries. 

In the aforementioned case, the decedent prepared a will naming her three children as equal beneficiaries.  Years later, the decedent created a revocable trust, deeding her real property to the trust.  However, upon the death of the decedent, the trust failed to name any beneficiaries.  A dispute subsequently arose among the three children of the decedent regarding the intended beneficiary. 

The drafting attorney filed an affidavit, stating he had made a mistake and should have prepared the Schedule of Beneficial Interest naming only two of the decedent’s children as the beneficiaries of the trust.  Under Section 736.0415 of the Florida Trust Code, a trust may be reformed to correct a mistake.  The court allowed for the possibility of reformation in order to limit the trust to the two children. 

See Jeffrey Skatoff, Trust Can Be Reformed to Add Beneficiaries, Florida Probate Lawyers, Apr. 22, 2015.