Charles E. Rounds, Jr. (Suffolk University Law School): Is the Uniform Trust Code’s generous reformation section, specifically §415, prying open the litigation floodgates as predicted? (February 1, 2022)

Charles E. Rounds, Jr., of Suffolk University Law School, has made available for download his article, Is the Uniform Trust Code’s generous reformation section, specifically §415, prying open the litigation floodgates as predicted?, published in JDSUPRA. The abstract is as follows:

Trust-instrument scriveners, and estate-planning professional generally, watch out. The Uniform Trust Code’s mistake-based reformation section, specifically §415, is a gift to the trial lawyers. In the litigation space some have yet to get the message. Some, however, clearly have. Section 415 provides as follows: “The court may reform the terms of a trust, even if unambiguous, to conform the terms to the settlor’s intention if it is proved by clear and convincing evidence what the settlor’s intention was and that the terms of the trust were affected by a mistake of fact or law, whether in expression or inducement.” A general discussion of the public-policy implications of this radical piece of legislation is found in §8.15.22 of Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook (2022), the relevant parts of which section are reproduced in the appendix immediately below.

Click here to view Charles E. Rounds, Jr. ’s summary of Is the Uniform Trust Code’s generous reformation section, specifically §415, prying open the litigation floodgates as predicted?.

Posted by Jessica Ji, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.