- 11 - than to manage it as trustee for the benefit of the remaindermen, petitioner’s children. Petitioner has no right under the trust agreement to vest corpus in himself. The trust agreement strongly shows the settlor’s intent for the trustee to act to preserve the corpus for eventual distribution to the settlor’s grandchildren. Petitioner, as trustee, has fiduciary duties to these remainder beneficiaries and must act for their benefit when dealing with the corpus. Further, the undistributed income never became part of the trust corpus nor commingled with the trust corpus.5 Petitioner never relinquished his claim to the undistributed net income. Moreover, the trust’s books and records showed the amount of undistributed net income due petitioner. The undistributed net income, unlike the trust corpus, was subject to petitioner’s withdrawal at any time. The undistributed net income was not held subject to the trust agreement, not required to be invested for the benefit of the remaindermen, and therefore, not part of the corpus. Petitioners have also failed to prove the conservation easements were donated from the undistributed net income 5We note that, if the undistributed net income did become part of the corpus, the trust agreement would impose fiduciary obligations on petitioner with respect to it. Any donation of the undistributed net income, if it became part of corpus, would be a violation of petitioner’s fiduciary duties to maintain the corpus for the benefit of the remaindermen, his children.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011