FEBRUARY 4, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 5
Arizona adopted a version of the Uniform Trust Code in 2008, to be effective at the beginning of 2009. The UTC has been the subject of much discussion across the country — it has been adopted in about half the states, and soundly rejected in a few others. Despite all that discussion, however, there are relatively few court cases addressing what the UTC provisions actually mean.
One concern commonly raised about the UTC has been its requirement that trust accounting information must be given to beneficiaries, including those who receive no benefit until after the death of a current beneficiary. Take, for instance, a common situation: in a second marriage, a wife establishes a trust for the benefit of her husband for the rest of his life, with the remainder to be paid out to her children (from her first marriage) after the husband’s death. Then the wife dies, leaving her house and brokerage account to the trust. Her surviving husband is trustee. Under Arizona’s version of the UTC, her children are entitled to receive at least annual reports from the husband.
But what should those reports contain? The Trust Code is less than completely explanatory. It says that the wife’s children are entitled to “a report of the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, including the source and amount of the trustee’s compensation, a listing of the trust assets and, if feasible, their respective market values.”
In a recent Arizona Court of Appeals case, the meaning of that requirement was questioned. The history was slightly more convoluted than the scenario we describe above: the trust had been established by a husband and wife for the ultimate benefit of the husband’s two daughters. First the husband and then the wife died. The trust, by its terms, then divided into two shares — one share outright to one daughter, and the other share to a local Certified Public Accountant as trustee for the benefit of the other daughter.
To try to make this convoluted story a little clearer, let’s identify the parties. In keeping with our usual attempt to avoid family names popping up in internet searches, and to make it easier to keep track, we’ll give everyone shortened names. We’ll call the combined trust — the original one set up by the husband and wife — the G Trust, and the trustee of that trust Geraldine. We’ll call the trust for the benefit of one daughter the S Trust, and the CPA/trustee of that trust Scott. The other daughter will be Doris.
Doris filed a court action asking for determination of the proper division of the G Trust. She noted that she had been named as beneficiary of an annuity and asked that it be determined that it was not part of the trust. Geraldine, the trustee of the G Trust, filed a proposed distribution schedule for the G Trust. Both Doris and Scott (the Trustee of the S Trust) objected, each arguing that their share should be increased. The probate court found that the annuity belonged to Doris, and that Geraldine should make her own calculation as to how to distribute the G Trust.
Months later, Scott filed a request that the court order Geraldine to file an “accounting” with the court. Geraldine objected that she had done everything the Arizona UTC required — and that all she was required to provide was a “report” under that statute. Scott argued that he was entitled to a more formal accounting. Ultimately the probate judge denied that request, finding that Geraldine’s reports (consisting of account statements and other documentation) were sufficient for Scott to protect his trust’s interest. Scott appealed.
With that background, the question before the Court of Appeals was straightforward: does the Arizona version of the Uniform Trust Code allow a beneficiary to make a demand for a formal, detailed accounting? No, ruled the appellate court. In fact, the UTC made the accounting requirements less onerous, rather than imposing more detail: the prior Arizona law had required “a statement of the accounts of the trust annually,” but that statute was repealed when the UTC was adopted.
According to the appellate decision, requiring an “accounting” would have included “establishing or settling financial accounts” and “extracting, sorting, and summarizing the recorded transactions to produce a set of financial records” (quoting from Black’s Law Dictionary 9th Ed.). The court also quoted from the commentary prepared by the UTC’s original, multi-state drafters: “The reporting requirement might even be satisfied by providing the beneficiaries with copies of the trust’s income tax returns and monthly brokerage account statements if the information on those returns and statements is complete and sufficiently clear.”
The bottom line: the main concern of the UTC is to assure that beneficiaries have the information they need to be able to protect their interests. Scott had sufficient detail that he could calculate whether Doris had received more than her share of the G Trust, and Geraldine was not required to prepare a more formal report. In the Matter of the Goar Trust, December 31, 2012.
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