Probate & Trust Law Section Conference Manual ... - Minnesota CLE

held that such language was an unambiguous offset and the mortgage on
the daughter’s property held by the trust was extinguished upon the
settlors’ deaths.
15. *Larkin v. Wells Fargo Bank, No. A12-0236, 2012 WL 4052844 (Minn.
Ct. App. Sept. 17, 2012). Trustee could not delegate its duties if not
authorized in trust agreement. A marital trust and a residuary trust were
established for beneficiary and beneficiary was the sole beneficiary of the
trusts during her lifetime. Beneficiary also was a co-trustee of each trust.
Beneficiary executed a power of attorney appointing her attorney-in-fact,
who stated that pursuant to the power of attorney, he was assuming
beneficiary’s role as trustee. The corporate trustee filed a petition to have
beneficiary removed as trustee. The Court subsequently revoked the
attorney-in-fact’s authority to act on behalf of the beneficiary in trust
related matters. While the power of attorney authorized the attorney-infact
to engage in fiduciary transactions, the Court held that the beneficiary
could not delegate her fiduciary duties unless authorized under the trust
agreement.
16. White v. Call, 738 S.E.2d 617 (Ga. 2013). Beneficiaries who waived
their interest in a trust were not entitled to the proceeds. Decedent
executed a trust agreement naming his wife and his three then living
children as beneficiaries and that his wife would continue to be a
beneficiary after his death provided that she had not remarried. The trust
agreement provided that at wife’s death, the trust assets would be
distributed to the surviving children of decedent. After the execution of the
trust agreement, another child was born. After decedent’s death, wife
remarried. Additionally, the three oldest children waived their interest in
the trust. At wife’s death, the three oldest children claimed that they were
entitled to a share of the trust. The Court held that the three oldest
children waived their interest in the trust and that the youngest child was
entitled to receive all the trust assets.
17. Svenningsen v. Svenningsen, 959 N.Y.S.2d 237 (N.Y. App. Div. 2013).
Adopted child who was subsequently adopted by another family
remained an issue of decedent, and remained a beneficiary of various
family trusts. In 1996, decedent and wife had four biological children
when they adopted petitioner. Shortly thereafter, they had a fifth
biological child. In 1995, decedent has established a trust for his children,
which provided that when the oldest child attained the age of 30, it was to
split into separate shares for each of his children. The trust agreement
defined children as his four biological children by name and any
additional children born to or adopted by the decedent. After petitioner’s
adoption, decedent created a 1996 trust, with separate shares for each of
his six children. Decedent died in 1997, and wife gave up her rights as the
adoptive parent in 2004, and petitioner was adopted by another family.
Petitioner brought an action to seek accountings for the various trusts,
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