LD 1573
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clarification of provisions in the 1962 Act, and changes to rules
in the prior Acts.

 
New rules. Issues addressed by some of the more significant
new rules include:

 
(1) The application of the probate administration rules to
revocable living trusts after the settlor's death and to other
terminating trusts. Articles 2 and 3.

 
(2) The payment of interest or some other amount on the
delayed payment of an outright pecuniary gift that is made
pursuant to a trust agreement instead of a will when the
agreement or state law does not provide for such a payment.
Section 201(3).

 
(3) The allocation of net income from partnership interests
acquired by the trustee other than from a decedent (the old Acts
deal only with partnership interests acquired from a decedent).
Section 401.

 
(4) An "unincorporated entity" concept has been introduced to
deal with businesses operated by a trustee, including farming and
livestock operations, and investment activities in rental real
estate, natural resources, timber, and derivatives. Section 403.

 
(5) The allocation of receipts from discount obligations such
as zero-coupon bonds. Section 406(b).

 
(6) The allocation of net income from harvesting and selling
timber between principal and income. Section 412.

 
(7) The allocation between principal and income of receipts
from derivatives, options, and asset-backed securities. Sections
414 and 415.

 
(8) Disbursements made because of environmental laws.
Section 502(a)(7).

 
(9) Income tax obligations resulting from the ownership of S
corporation stock and interests in partnerships. Section 505.

 
(10) The power to make adjustments between principal and
income to correct inequities caused by tax elections or
peculiarities in the way the fiduciary income tax rules apply.
Section 506.

 
Clarifications and changes in existing rules. A number of
matters provided for in the prior Acts have been changed or
clarified in this revision, including the following:

 
(1) An income beneficiary's estate will be entitled to
receive only net income actually received by a trust before the
beneficiary's death and not items of accrued income. Section
303.

 
(2) Income from a partnership is based on actual
distributions from the partnership, in the same manner as
corporate distributions. Section 401.

 
(3) Distributions from corporations and partnerships that
exceed 20% of the entity's gross assets will be principal whether
or not intended by the entity to be a partial liquidation.
Section 401(d)(2).

 
(4) Deferred compensation is dealt with in greater detail in
a separate section. Section 409.

 
(5) The 1962 Act rule for "property subject to depletion,"
(patents, copyrights, royalties, and the like), which provides
that a trustee may allocate up to 5% of the asset's inventory
value to income and the balance to principal, has been replaced
by a rule that allocates 90% of the amounts received to principal
and the balance to income. Section 410.

 
(6) The percentage used to allocate amounts received from oil
and gas has been changed - 90% of those receipts are allocated to
principal and the balance to income. Section 411.

 
(7) The unproductive property rule has been eliminated for
trusts other than marital deduction trusts. Section 413.

 
(8) Charging depreciation against income is no longer
mandatory, and is left to the discretion of the trustee. Section
503.

 
Coordination with the Uniform Prudent Investor Act

 
The law of trust investment has been modernized. See Uniform
Prudent Investor Act (1994); Restatement (Third) of Trusts:
Prudent Investor Rule (1992) (hereinafter Restatement of Trusts
3d: Prudent Investor Rule). Now it is time to update the
principal and income allocation rules so the two bodies of
doctrine can work well together. This revision deals
conservatively with the tension between modern investment theory
and traditional income allocation. The starting point is to use
the traditional system. If prudent investing of all the assets
in a trust viewed as a portfolio and traditional allocation

 
effectuate the intent of the settlor, then nothing need be done.
The Act, however, helps the trustee who has made a prudent,
modern portfolio-based investment decision that has the initial
effect of skewing return from all the assets under management,
viewed as a portfolio, as between income and principal
beneficiaries. The Act gives that trustee a power to reallocate
the portfolio return suitably. To leave a trustee constrained by
the traditional system would inhibit the trustee's ability to
fully implement modern portfolio theory.

 
As to modern investing see, e.g., the Preface to, terms of,
and Comments to the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (1994); the
discussion and reporter's note by Edward C. Halbach, Jr. in
Restatement of Trusts 3d: Prudent Investor Rule; John H.
Langbein, The Uniform Prudent Investor Act and the Future of
Trust Investing, 81 Iowa L. Rev. 641 (1996); Bevis Longstreth,
Modern Investment Management and the Prudent Man Rule (1986);
John H. Langbein & Richard A. Posner, The Revolution in Trust
Investment Law, 62 A.B.A.J. 887 (1976); and Jeffrey N. Gordon,
The Puzzling Persistence of the Constrained Prudent Man Rule, 62
N.Y.U. L. Rev. 52 (1987). See also R.A. Brearly, An Introduction
to Risk and Return from Common Stocks (2d ed. 1983); Jonathan R.
Macey, An Introduction to Modern Financial Theory (2d ed. 1998).
As to the need for principal and income reform see, e.g., Joel C.
Dobris, Real Return, Modern Portfolio Theory and College,
University and Foundation Decisions on Annual Spending From
Endowments: A Visit to the World of Spending Rules, 28 Real
Prop., Prob., & Tr. J. 49 (1993); Joel C. Dobris, The Probate
World at the End of the Century: Is a New Principal and Income
Act in Your Future?, 28 Real Prop., Prob., & Tr. J. 393 (1993);
and Kenneth L. Hirsch, Inflation and the Law of Trusts, 18 Real
Prop., Prob., & Tr. J. 601 (1983). See also, Jerold I. Horn, The
Prudent Investor Rule - Impact on Drafting and Administration of
Trusts, 20 ACTEC Notes 26 (Summer 1994).

 
Sec. 1. 18-A MRSA Art. VII, Pt. 7 is enacted to read:

 
PART 7

 
UNIFORM PRINCIPAL AND INCOME ACT OF 1997

 
SUBPART 1

 
DEFINITIONS AND FIDUCIARY DUTIES

 
§7-701.__Short title

 
This Part may be cited as the "Uniform Principal and Income
Act of 1997."

 
§7-702.__Definitions

 
As used in this Part, unless the context otherwise indicates,
the following terms have the following meanings.

 
(a)__"Accounting period" means a calendar year unless another
12-month period is selected by a fiduciary.__The term includes a
portion of a calendar year or other 12-month period that begins
when an income interest begins or ends when an income interest
ends.

 
(b)__"Beneficiary" includes, in the case of a decedent's
estate, an heir, legatee and devisee and, in the case of a trust,
an income beneficiary and a remainder beneficiary.

 
(c)__"Fiduciary" means a personal representative or a trustee.__
The term includes an executor, administrator, successor personal
representative, special administrator and a person performing
substantially the same function.

 
(d)__"Income" means money or property that a fiduciary
receives as current return from a principal asset.__The term
includes a portion of receipts from a sale, exchange or
liquidation of a principal asset, to the extent provided in
subpart 4.

 
(e)__"Income beneficiary" means a person to whom net income of
a trust is or may be payable.

 
(f)__"Income interest" means the right of an income
beneficiary to receive all or part of net income, whether the
terms of the trust require it to be distributed or authorize it
to be distributed in the trustee's discretion.

 
(g)__"Mandatory income interest" means the right of an income
beneficiary to receive net income that the terms of the trust
require the fiduciary to distribute.

 
(h)__"Net income" means the total receipts allocated to income
during an accounting period minus the disbursements made from
income during the period, plus or minus transfers under this Part
to or from income during the period.

 
(i)__"Person" means an individual; corporation; business
trust; estate; trust; partnership; limited liability company;
association; joint venture; government; governmental subdivision,
agency or instrumentality; public corporation; or any other legal
or commercial entity.

 
(j)__"Principal" means property held in trust for distribution
to a remainder beneficiary when the trust terminates.

 
(k)__"Remainder beneficiary" means a person entitled to
receive principal when an income interest ends.

 
(l)__"Terms of a trust" means the manifestation of the intent
of a settlor or decedent with respect to the trust, expressed in
a manner that admits of its proof in a judicial proceeding,
whether by written or spoken words or by conduct.

 
(m)__"Trustee" includes an original, additional or successor
trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by a court.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is section 102 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
"Income beneficiary." The definitions of income beneficiary
(Section 102(5)) and income interest (Section 102(6)) cover both
mandatory and discretionary beneficiaries and interests. There
are no definitions for "discretionary income beneficiary" or
"discretionary income interest" because those terms are not used
in the Act.

 
Inventory value. There is no definition for inventory value
in this Act because the provisions in which that term was used in
the 1962 Act have either been eliminated (in the case of the
underproductive property provision) or changed in a way that
eliminates the need for the term (in the case of bonds and other
money obligations, property subject to depletion, and the method
for determining entitlement to income distributed from a probate
estate).

 
"Net income." The reference to "transfers under this Act to
or from income" means transfers made under Sections 104(a),
412(b), 502(b), 503(b), 504(a), and 506.

 
"Terms of a trust." This term was chosen in preference to
"terms of the trust instrument" (the phrase used in the 1962 Act)
to make it clear that the Act applies to oral trusts as well as
those whose terms are expressed in written documents. The
definition is based on the Restatement (Second) of Trusts § 4
(1959) and the Restatement (Third) of Trusts § 4 (Tent. Draft No.
1, 1996). Constructional preferences or rules would also apply,
if necessary, to determine the terms of the trust.

 
§7-703.__Fiduciary duties; general principles

 
(a)__In allocating receipts and disbursements to or between
principal and income and with respect to any matter within the
scope of subparts 2 and 3, a fiduciary:

 
(1)__Shall administer a trust or estate in accordance with
the terms of the trust or the will, even if there is a
different provision in this Part;

 
(2)__May administer a trust or estate by the exercise of a
discretionary power of administration given to the fiduciary
by the terms of the trust or the will, even if the exercise
of the power produces a result different from a result
required or permitted by this Part;

 
(3)__Shall administer a trust or estate in accordance with
this Part if the terms of the trust or the will do not
contain a different provision or do not give the fiduciary a
discretionary power of administration; and

 
(4)__Shall add a receipt or charge a disbursement to
principal to the extent that the terms of the trust and this
Part do not provide a rule for allocating the receipt or
disbursement to or between principal and income.

 
(b)__In exercising the power to adjust under section 7-704,
subsection (a) or a discretionary power of administration
regarding a matter within the scope of this Part, whether granted
by the terms of a trust, a will or this Part, a fiduciary shall
administer a trust or estate impartially, based on what is fair
and reasonable to all of the beneficiaries, except to the extent
that the terms of the trust or the will clearly manifest an
intention that the fiduciary shall or may favor one or more of
the beneficiaries.__A determination in accordance with this Part
is presumed to be fair and reasonable to all of the
beneficiaries.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 103 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Act. The rule in Section 2(a) of the 1962 Act is
restated in Section 103(a), without changing its substance, to
emphasize that the Act contains only default rules and that
provisions in the terms of the trust are paramount. However,
Section 2(a) of the 1962 Act applies only to the allocation of
receipts and disbursements to or between principal and income.
In this Act, the first sentence of Section 103(a) states that it
also applies to matters within the scope of Articles 2 and 3.

 
Section 103(a)(2) incorporates the rule in Section 2(b) of the
1962 Act that a discretionary allocation made by the trustee that
is contrary to a rule in the Act should not give rise to an
inference of imprudence or partiality by the trustee.

 
The Act deletes the language that appears at the end of 1962
Act Section 2(a)(3) - "and in view of the manner in which men of
ordinary prudence, discretion and judgment would act in the
management of their affairs" - because persons of ordinary
prudence, discretion and judgment, acting in the management of
their own affairs do not normally think in terms of the interests
of successive beneficiaries. If there is an analogy to an
individual's decisionmaking process, it is probably the
individual's decision to spend or to save, but this is not a
useful guideline for trust administration. No case has been
found in which a court has relied on the "prudent man" rule of
the 1962 Act.

 
Fiduciary discretion. The general rule is that if a
discretionary power is conferred upon a trustee, the exercise of
that power is not subject to control by a court except to prevent
an abuse of discretion. Restatement (Second) of Trusts § 187.
The situations in which a court will control the exercise of a
trustee's discretion are discussed in the comments to § 187. See
also id. § 233 Comment p.

 
Questions for which there is no provision. Section 103(a)(4)
allocates receipts and disbursements to principal when there is
no provision for a different allocation in the terms of the
trust, the will or the Act. This may occur because money is
received from a financial instrument not available at the present
time (inflation-indexed bonds might have fallen into this
category had they been announced after this Act was approved by
the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws) or because a transaction
is of a type or occurs in a manner not anticipated by the
Drafting Committee for this Act or the drafter of the trust
instrument.

 
Allocating to principal a disbursement for which there is no
provision in the Act or the terms of the trust preserves the
income beneficiary's level of income in the year it is allocated
to principal, but thereafter will reduce the amount of income
produced by the principal. Allocating to principal a receipt for
which there is no provision will increase the income received by
the income beneficiary in subsequent years, and will eventually,
upon termination of the trust, also favor the remainder
beneficiary. Allocating these items to principal implements the
rule that requires a trustee to administer the trust impartially,
based on what is fair and reasonable to both income and remainder
beneficiaries. However, if the trustee decides that an

 
adjustment between principal and income is needed to enable the
trustee to comply with Section 103(b), after considering the
return from the portfolio as a whole, the trustee may make an
appropriate adjustment under Section 104(a).

 
Duty of impartiality. Whenever there are two or more
beneficiaries, a trustee is under a duty to deal impartially with
them. Restatement of Trusts 3d: Prudent Investor Rule § 183
(1992). This rule applies whether the beneficiaries' interests
in the trust are concurrent or successive. If the terms of the
trust give the trustee discretion to favor one beneficiary over
another, a court will not control the exercise of such discretion
except to prevent the trustee from abusing it. Id. § 183,
Comment a. "The precise meaning of the trustee's duty of
impartiality and the balancing of competing interests and
objectives inevitably are matters of judgment and interpretation.
Thus, the duty and balancing are affected by the purposes, terms,
distribution requirements, and other circumstances of the trust,
not only at the outset but as they may change from time to time."
Id. § 232, Comment c.

 
The terms of a trust may provide that the trustee, or an
accountant engaged by the trustee, or a committee of persons who
may be family members or business associates, shall have the
power to determine what is income and what is principal. If the
terms of a trust provide that this Act specifically or principal
and income legislation in general does not apply to the trust but
fail to provide a rule to deal with a matter provided for in this
Act, the trustee has an implied grant of discretion to decide the
question. Section 103(b) provides that the rule of impartiality
applies in the exercise of such a discretionary power to the
extent that the terms of the trust do not provide that one or
more of the beneficiaries are to be favored. The fact that a
person is named an income beneficiary or a remainder beneficiary
is not by itself an indication of partiality for that
beneficiary.

 
§7-704.__Trustee's power to adjust

 
(a)__A trustee may adjust between principal and income to the
extent the trustee considers necessary if the trustee invests and
manages trust assets as a prudent investor, the terms of the
trust describe the amount that may or must be distributed to a
beneficiary by referring to the trust's income and the trustee
determines, after applying the rules in section 7-703, subsection
(a), that the trustee is unable to comply with section 7-703,
subsection (b).

 
(b)__In deciding whether and to what extent to exercise the
power conferred by subsection (a), a trustee shall consider all

 
factors relevant to the trust and its beneficiaries, including
the following factors to the extent they are relevant:

 
(1)__The nature, purpose and expected duration of the trust;

 
(2)__The intent of the settlor;

 
(3)__The identity and circumstances of the beneficiaries;

 
(4)__The needs for liquidity, regularity of income and
preservation and appreciation of capital;

 
(5)__The assets held in the trust; the extent to which they
consist of financial assets, interests in closely held
enterprises, tangible and intangible personal property or
real property; the extent to which an asset is used by a
beneficiary; and whether an asset was purchased by the
trustee or received from the settlor;

 
(6)__The net amount allocated to income under the other
sections of this Part and the increase or decrease in the
value of the principal assets, which the trustee may
estimate as to assets for which market values are not
readily available;

 
(7)__Whether and to what extent the terms of the trust give
the trustee the power to invade principal or accumulate
income or prohibit the trustee from invading principal or
accumulating income, and the extent to which the trustee has
exercised a power from time to time to invade principal or
accumulate income;

 
(8)__The actual and anticipated effect of economic
conditions on principal and income and effects of inflation
and deflation; and

 
(9)__The anticipated tax consequences of an adjustment.

 
(c)__A trustee may not make an adjustment:

 
(1)__That diminishes the income interest in a trust that
requires all of the income to be paid at least annually to a
spouse and for which an estate tax or gift tax marital
deduction would be allowed, in whole or in part, if the
trustee did not have the power to make the adjustment;

 
(2)__That reduces the actuarial value of the income interest
in a trust to which a person transfers property with the
intent to qualify for a gift tax exclusion;

 
(3)__That changes the amount payable to a beneficiary as a
fixed annuity or a fixed fraction of the value of the trust
assets;

 
(4)__From any amount that is permanently set aside for
charitable purposes under a will or the terms of a trust
unless both income and principal are so set aside;

 
(5)__If possessing or exercising the power to make an
adjustment causes an individual to be treated as the owner
of all or part of the trust for income tax purposes and the
individual would not be treated as the owner if the trustee
did not possess the power to make an adjustment;

 
(6)__If possessing or exercising the power to make an
adjustment causes all or part of the trust assets to be
included for estate tax purposes in the estate of an
individual who has the power to remove a trustee or appoint
a trustee, or both, and the assets would not be included in
the estate of the individual if the trustee did not possess
the power to make an adjustment;

 
(7)__If the trustee is a beneficiary of the trust; or

 
(8)__If the trustee is not a beneficiary, but the adjustment
would benefit the trustee directly or indirectly.

 
(d)__If subsection (c), paragraph (5), (6), (7) or (8) applies
to a trustee and there is more than one trustee, a cotrustee to
whom the provision does not apply may make the adjustment unless
the exercise of the power by the remaining trustee or trustees is
not permitted by the terms of the trust.

 
(e)__A trustee may release the entire power conferred by
subsection (a) or may release only the power to adjust from
income to principal or the power to adjust from principal to
income if the trustee is uncertain about whether possessing or
exercising the power will cause a result described in subsection
(c), paragraphs (1) to (6) or paragraph (8) or if the trustee
determines that possessing or exercising the power will or may
deprive the trust of a tax benefit or impose a tax burden not
described in subsection (c).__The release may be permanent or for
a specified period, including a period measured by the life of an
individual.

 
(f)__Terms of a trust that limit the power of a trustee to
make an adjustment between principal and income do not affect the
application of this section unless it is clear from the terms of
the trust that the terms are intended to deny the trustee the
power of adjustment conferred by subsection (a).

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 104 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Purpose and Scope of Provision. The purpose of Section 104 is
to enable a trustee to select investments using the standards of
a prudent investor without having to realize a particular portion
of the portfolio's total return in the form of traditional trust
accounting income such as interest, dividends, and rents.
Section 104(a) authorizes a trustee to make adjustments between
principal and income if three conditions are met: (1) the trustee
must be managing the trust assets under the prudent investor
rule; (2) the terms of the trust must express the income
beneficiary's distribution rights in terms of the right to
receive "income" in the sense of traditional trust accounting
income; and (3) the trustee must determine, after applying the
rules in Section 103(a), that he is unable to comply with Section
103(b). In deciding whether and to what extent to exercise the
power to adjust, the trustee is required to consider the factors
described in Section 104(b), but the trustee may not make an
adjustment in circumstances described in Section 104(c).

 
Section 104 does not empower a trustee to increase or decrease
the degree of beneficial enjoyment to which a beneficiary is
entitled under the terms of the trust; rather, it authorizes the
trustee to make adjustments between principal and income that may
be necessary if the income component of a portfolio's total
return is too small or too large because of investment decisions
made by the trustee under the prudent investor rule. The
paramount consideration in applying Section 104(a) is the
requirement in Section 103(b) that "a fiduciary must administer a
trust or estate impartially, based on what is fair and reasonable
to all of the beneficiaries, except to the extent that the terms
of the trust or the will clearly manifest an intention that the
fiduciary shall or may favor one or more of the beneficiaries."
The power to adjust is subject to control by the court to prevent
an abuse of discretion. Restatement (Second) of Trusts § 187
(1959). See also id. §§ 183, 232, 233, Comment p (1959).

 
Section 104 will be important for trusts that are irrevocable
when a State adopts the prudent investor rule by statute or
judicial approval of the rule in Restatement of Trusts 3d:
Prudent Investor Rule. Wills and trust instruments executed
after the rule is adopted can be drafted to describe a
beneficiary's distribution rights in terms that do not depend
upon the amount of trust accounting income, but to the extent

 
that drafters of trust documents continue to describe an income
beneficiary's distribution rights by referring to trust
accounting income, Section 104 will be an important tool in trust
administration.

 
Three conditions to the exercise of the power to adjust. The
first of the three conditions that must be met before a trustee
can exercise the power to adjust - that the trustee invest and
manage trust assets as a prudent investor - is expressed in this
Act by language derived from the Uniform Prudent Investor Act,
but the condition will be met whether the prudent investor rule
applies because the Uniform Act or other prudent investor
legislation has been enacted, the prudent investor rule has been
approved by the courts, or the terms of the trust require it.
Even if a State's legislature or courts have not formally adopted
the rule, the Restatement establishes the prudent investor rule
as an authoritative interpretation of the common law prudent man
rule, referring to the prudent investor rule as a "modest
reformulation of the Harvard College dictum and the basic rule of
prior Restatements." Restatement of Trusts 3d: Prudent Investor
Rule, Introduction, at 5. As a result, there is a basis for
concluding that the first condition is satisfied in virtually all
States except those in which a trustee is permitted to invest
only in assets set forth in a statutory "legal list."

 
The second condition will be met when the terms of the trust
require all of the "income" to be distributed at regular
intervals; or when the terms of the trust require a trustee to
distribute all of the income, but permit the trustee to decide
how much to distribute to each member of a class of
beneficiaries; or when the terms of a trust provide that the
beneficiary shall receive the greater of the trust accounting
income and a fixed dollar amount (an annuity), or of trust
accounting income and a fractional share of the value of the
trust assets (a unitrust amount). If the trust authorizes the
trustee in its discretion to distribute the trust's income to the
beneficiary or to accumulate some or all of the income, the
condition will be met because the terms of the trust do not
permit the trustee to distribute more than the trust accounting
income.

 
To meet the third condition, the trustee must first meet the
requirements of Section 103(a), i.e., she must apply the terms of
the trust, decide whether to exercise the discretionary powers
given to the trustee under the terms of the trust, and must apply
the provisions of the Act if the terms of the trust do not
contain a different provision or give the trustee discretion.
Second, the trustee must determine the extent to which the terms
of the trust clearly manifest an intention by the settlor that

 
the trustee may or must favor one or more of the beneficiaries.
To the extent that the terms of the trust do not require
partiality, the trustee must conclude that she is unable to
comply with the duty to administer the trust impartially. To the
extent that the terms of the trust do require or permit the
trustee to favor the income beneficiary or the remainder
beneficiary, the trustee must conclude that she is unable to
achieve the degree of partiality required or permitted. If the
trustee comes to either conclusion - that she is unable to
administer the trust impartially or that she is unable to achieve
the degree of partiality required or permitted - she may exercise
the power to adjust under Section 104(a).

 
Impartiality and productivity of income. The duty of
impartiality between income and remainder beneficiaries is linked
to the trustee's duty to make the portfolio productive of trust
accounting income whenever the distribution requirements are
expressed in terms of distributing the trust's "income." The
1962 Act implies that the duty to produce income applies on an
asset by asset basis because the right of an income beneficiary
to receive "delayed income" from the sale proceeds of
underproductive property under Section 12 of that Act arises if
"any part of principal ... has not produced an average net income
of a least 1% per year of its inventory value for more than a
year ... ." Under the prudent investor rule, "[t]o whatever
extent a requirement of income productivity exists, ... the
requirement applies not investment by investment but to the
portfolio as a whole." Restatement of Trusts 3d: Prudent
Investor Rule § 227, Comment i, at 34. The power to adjust under
Section 104(a) is also to be exercised by considering net income
from the portfolio as a whole and not investment by investment.
Section 413(b) of this Act eliminates the underproductive
property rule in all cases other than trusts for which a marital
deduction is allowed; the rule applies to a marital deduction
trust if the trust's assets "consist substantially of property
that does not provide the spouse with sufficient income from or
use of the trust assets ..." - in other words, the section
applies by reference to the portfolio as a whole.

 
While the purpose of the power to adjust in Section 104(a) is
to eliminate the need for a trustee who operates under the
prudent investor rule to be concerned about the income component
of the portfolio's total return, the trustee must still determine
the extent to which a distribution must be made to an income
beneficiary and the adequacy of the portfolio's liquidity as a
whole to make that distribution.

 
For a discussion of investment considerations involving
specific investments and techniques under the prudent investor

 
rule, see Restatement of Trusts 3d: Prudent Investor Rule § 227,
Comments k-p.

 
Factors to consider in exercising the power to adjust.
Section 104(b) requires a trustee to consider factors relevant to
the trust and its beneficiaries in deciding whether and to what
extent the power to adjust should be exercised. Section 2(c) of
the Uniform Prudent Investor Act sets forth circumstances that a
trustee is to consider in investing and managing trust assets.
The circumstances in Section 2(c) of the Uniform Prudent Investor
Act are the source of the factors in paragraphs (3) through (6)
and (8) of Section 104(b) (modified where necessary to adapt them
to the purposes of this Act) so that, to the extent possible,
comparable factors will apply to investment decisions and
decisions involving the power to adjust. If a trustee who is
operating under the prudent investor rule decides that the
portfolio should be composed of financial assets whose total
return will result primarily from capital appreciation rather
than dividends, interest, and rents, the trustee can decide at
the same time the extent to which an adjustment from principal to
income may be necessary under Section 104. On the other hand, if
a trustee decides that the risk and return objectives for the
trust are best achieved by a portfolio whose total return
includes interest and dividend income that is sufficient to
provide the income beneficiary with the beneficial interest to
which the beneficiary is entitled under the terms of the trust,
the trustee can decide that it is unnecessary to exercise the
power to adjust.

 
Assets received from the settlor. Section 3 of the Uniform
Prudent Investor Act provides that "[a] trustee shall diversify
the investments of the trust unless the trustee reasonably
determines that, because of special circumstances, the purposes
of the trust are better served without diversifying." The
special circumstances may include the wish to retain a family
business, the benefit derived from deferring liquidation of the
asset in order to defer payment of income taxes, or the
anticipated capital appreciation from retaining an asset such as
undeveloped real estate for a long period. To the extent the
trustee retains assets received from the settlor because of
special circumstances that overcome the duty to diversify, the
trustee may take these circumstances into account in determining
whether and to what extent the power to adjust should be
exercised to change the results produced by other provisions of
this Act that apply to the retained assets. See Section
104(b)(5); Uniform Prudent Investor Act § 3, Comment, 7B U.L.A.
18, at 2526 (Supp. 1997); Restatement of Trusts 3d: Prudent
Investor Rule § 229 and Comments a-e.

 
Limitations on the power to adjust. The purpose of
subsections (c)(1) through (4) is to preserve tax benefits that
may have been an important purpose for creating the trust.
Subsections (c)(5), (6), and (8) deny the power to adjust in the
circumstances described in those subsections in order to prevent
adverse tax consequences, and subsection (c)(7) denies the power
to adjust to any beneficiary, whether or not possession of the
power may have adverse tax consequences.

 
Under subsection (c)(1), a trustee cannot make an adjustment
that diminishes the income interest in a trust that requires all
of the income to be paid at least annually to a spouse and for
which an estate tax or gift tax marital deduction is allowed; but
this subsection does not prevent the trustee from making an
adjustment that increases the amount of income paid from a
marital deduction trust to the spouse. Subsection (c)(1) applies
to a trust that qualifies for the marital deduction because the
spouse has a general power of appointment over the trust, but it
applies to a qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust
only if and to the extent that the fiduciary makes the election
required to obtain the tax deduction. Subsection (c)(1) does not
apply to a so-called "estate" trust. This type of trust
qualifies for the marital deduction because the terms of the
trust require the principal and undistributed income to be paid
to the surviving spouse's estate when the spouse dies; it is not
necessary for the terms of an estate trust to require the income
to be distributed annually. Reg. § 20.2056(c)2(b)(1)(iii).

 
Subsection (c)(3) applies to annuity trusts and unitrusts with
no charitable beneficiaries as well as to trusts with charitable
income or remainder beneficiaries; its purpose is to make it
clear that a beneficiary's right to receive a fixed annuity or a
fixed fraction of the value of a trust's assets is not subject to
adjustment under Section 104(a). Subsection (c)(3) does not
apply to any additional amount to which the beneficiary may be
entitled that is expressed in terms of a right to receive income
from the trust. For example, if a beneficiary is to receive a
fixed annuity or the trust's income, whichever is greater,
subsection (c)(3) does not prevent a trustee from making an
adjustment under Section 104(a) in determining the amount of the
trust's income.

 
If subsection (c)(5), (6), (7), or (8), prevents a trustee
from exercising the power to adjust, subsection (d) permits a
cotrustee who is not subject to the provision to exercise the
power unless the terms of the trust do not permit the cotrustee
to do so.

 
Release of the power to adjust. Section 104(e) permits a
trustee to release all or part of the power to adjust in

 
circumstances in which the possession or exercise of the power
might deprive the trust of a tax benefit or impose a tax burden.
For example, if possessing the power would diminish the actuarial
value of the income interest in a trust for which the income
beneficiary's estate may be eligible to claim a credit for
property previously taxed if the beneficiary dies within ten
years after the death of the person creating the trust, the
trustee is permitted under subsection (e) to release just the
power to adjust from income to principal.

 
Trust terms that limit a power to adjust. Section 104(f)
applies to trust provisions that limit a trustee's power to
adjust. Since the power is intended to enable trustees to employ
the prudent investor rule without being constrained by
traditional principal and income rules, an instrument executed
before the adoption of this Act whose terms describe the amount
that may or must be distributed to a beneficiary by referring to
the trust's income or that prohibit the invasion of principal or
that prohibit equitable adjustments in general should not be
construed as forbidding the use of the power to adjust under
Section 104(a) if the need for adjustment arises because the
trustee is operating under the prudent investor rule.
Instruments containing such provisions that are executed after
the adoption of this Act should specifically refer to the power
to adjust if the settlor intends to forbid its use. See
generally, Joel C. Dobris, Limits on the Doctrine of Equitable
Adjustment in Sophisticated Postmortem Tax Planning, 66 Iowa L.
Rev. 273 (1981).

 
Examples. The following examples illustrate the application
of Section 104:

 
Example (1) - T is the successor trustee of a trust that
provides income to A for life, remainder to B. T has received
from the prior trustee a portfolio of financial assets invested
20% in stocks and 80% in bonds. Following the prudent investor
rule, T determines that a strategy of investing the portfolio 50%
in stocks and 50% in bonds has risk and return objectives that
are reasonably suited to the trust, but T also determines that
adopting this approach will cause the trust to receive a smaller
amount of dividend and interest income. After considering the
factors in Section 104(b), T may transfer cash from principal to
income to the extent T considers it necessary to increase the
amount distributed to the income beneficiary.

 
Example (2) - T is the trustee of a trust that requires the
income to be paid to the settlor's son C for life, remainder to
C's daughter D. In a period of very high inflation, T purchases
bonds that pay double-digit interest and determines that a
portion of the interest, which is allocated to income under

 
Section 406 of this Act, is a return of capital. In
consideration of the loss of value of principal due to inflation
and other factors that T considers relevant, T may transfer part
of the interest to principal.

 
Example (3) - T is the trustee of a trust that requires the
income to be paid to the settlor's sister E for life, remainder
to charity F. E is a retired schoolteacher who is single and has
no children. E's income from her social security, pension, and
savings exceeds the amount required to provide for her accustomed
standard of living. The terms of the trust permit T to invade
principal to provide for E's health and to support her in her
accustomed
manner of living, but do not otherwise indicate that T should
favor E or F. Applying the prudent investor rule, T determines
that the trust assets should be invested entirely in growth
stocks that produce very little dividend income. Even though it
is not necessary to invade principal to maintain E's accustomed
standard of living, she is entitled to receive from the trust the
degree of beneficial enjoyment normally accorded a person who is
the sole income beneficiary of a trust, and T may transfer cash
from principal to income to provide her with that degree of
enjoyment.

 
Example (4) - T is the trustee of a trust that is governed by
the law of State X. The trust became irrevocable before State X
adopted the prudent investor rule. The terms of the trust
require all of the income to be paid to G for life, remainder to
H, and also give T the power to invade principal for the benefit
of G for "dire emergencies only." The terms of the trust limit
the aggregate amount that T can distribute to G from principal
during G's life to 6% of the trust's value at its inception. The
trust's portfolio is invested initially 50% in stocks and 50% in
bonds, but after State X adopts the prudent investor rule T
determines that, to achieve suitable risk and return objectives
for the trust, the assets should be invested 90% in stocks and
10% in bonds. This change increases the total return from the
portfolio and decreases the dividend and interest income.
Thereafter, even though G does not experience a dire emergency, T
may exercise the power to adjust under Section 104(a) to the
extent that T determines that the adjustment is from only the
capital appreciation resulting from the change in the portfolio's
asset allocation. If T is unable to determine the extent to
which capital appreciation resulted from the change in asset
allocation or is unable to maintain adequate records to determine
the extent to which principal distributions to G for dire
emergencies do not exceed the 6% limitation, T may not exercise
the power to adjust. See Joel C. Dobris, Limits on the Doctrine
of Equitable Adjustment in Sophisticated Postmortem Tax Planning,
66 Iowa L. Rev. 273 (1981).

 
Example (5) - T is the trustee of a trust for the settlor's
child. The trust owns a diversified portfolio of marketable
financial assets with a value of $600,000, and is also the sole
beneficiary of the settlor's IRA, which holds a diversified
portfolio of marketable financial assets with a value of
$900,000. The trust receives a distribution from the IRA that is
the minimum amount required to be distributed under the Internal
Revenue Code, and T allocates 10% of the distribution to income
under Section 409(c) of this Act. The total return on the IRA's
assets exceeds the amount distributed to the trust, and the value
of the IRA at the end of the year is more than its value at the
beginning of the year. Relevant factors that T may consider in
determining whether to exercise the power to adjust and the
extent to which an adjustment should be made to comply with
Section 103(b) include the total
return from all of the trust's assets, those owned directly as
well as its interest in the IRA, the extent to which the trust
will be subject to income tax on the portion of the IRA
distribution that is allocated to principal, and the extent to
which the income beneficiary will be subject to income tax on the
amount that T distributes to the income beneficiary.

 
Example (6) - T is the trustee of a trust whose portfolio
includes a large parcel of undeveloped real estate. T pays real
property taxes on the undeveloped parcel from income each year
pursuant to Section 501(3). After considering the return from
the trust's portfolio as a whole and other relevant factors
described in Section 104(b), T may exercise the power to adjust
under Section 104(a) to transfer cash from principal to income in
order to distribute to the income beneficiary an amount that T
considers necessary to comply with Section 103(b).

 
Example (7) - T is the trustee of a trust whose portfolio
includes an interest in a mutual fund that is sponsored by T. As
the manager of the mutual fund, T charges the fund a management
fee that reduces the amount available to distribute to the trust
by $2,000. If the fee had been paid directly by the trust, one-
half of the fee would have been paid from income under Section
501(1) and the other one-half would have been paid from principal
under Section 502(a)(1). After considering the total return from
the portfolio as a whole and other relevant factors described in
Section 104(b), T may exercise its power to adjust under Section
104(a) by transferring $1,000, or half of the trust's
proportionate share of the fee, from principal to income.

 
SUBPART 2

 
DECEDENT'S ESTATE OR

 
TERMINATING INCOME INTEREST

 
§7-721.__Determination and distribution of net income

 
After a decedent dies, in the case of an estate, or after an
income interest in a trust ends, the following rules apply.

 
(a)__A fiduciary of an estate or of a terminating income
interest shall determine the amount of net income and net
principal receipts received from property specifically given to a
beneficiary under the rules in subparts 3 to 5 that apply to
trustees and the rules in subsection (e).__The fiduciary shall
distribute the net income and net principal receipts to the
beneficiary who is to receive the specific property.

 
(b)__A fiduciary shall determine the remaining net income of a
decedent's estate or a terminating income interest under the
rules in subparts 3 to 5 that apply to trustees and by:

 
(1)__Including in net income all income from property used
to discharge liabilities;

 
(2)__Paying from income or principal, in the fiduciary's
discretion, fees of attorneys, accountants and fiduciaries;
court costs and other expenses of administration; and
interest on death taxes; but the fiduciary may pay those
expenses from income of property passing to a trust for
which the fiduciary claims an estate tax marital or
charitable deduction only to the extent that the payment of
those expenses from income will not cause the reduction or
loss of the deduction; and

 
(3)__Paying from principal all other disbursements made or
incurred in connection with the settlement of a decedent's
estate or the winding up of a terminating income interest,
including debts, funeral expenses, disposition of remains,
family allowances and death taxes and related penalties that
are apportioned to the estate or terminating income interest
by the will, the terms of the trust or applicable law.

 
(c)__A fiduciary shall distribute to a beneficiary who
receives a pecuniary amount outright the interest or any other
amount provided by the will, the terms of the trust or applicable
law from net income determined under subsection (b) or from
principal to the extent that net income is insufficient.__If a
beneficiary is to receive a pecuniary amount outright from a
trust after an income interest ends and no interest or other
amount is provided for by the terms of the trust or applicable
law, the fiduciary shall distribute the interest or other amount
to which the beneficiary would be entitled under applicable law
if the pecuniary amount were required to be paid under a will.

 
(d)__A fiduciary shall distribute the net income remaining
after distributions required by subsection (c) in the manner
described in section 7-722 to all other beneficiaries, including
a beneficiary who receives a pecuniary amount in trust, even if
the beneficiary holds an unqualified power to withdraw assets
from the trust or other presently exercisable general power of
appointment over the trust.

 
(e)__A fiduciary may not reduce principal or income receipts
from property described in subsection (a) because of a payment
described in section 7-761 or 7-762 to the extent that the will,
the terms of the trust or applicable law requires the fiduciary
to make the payment from assets other than the property or to the
extent that the fiduciary recovers or expects to recover the
payment from a 3rd party.__The net income and principal receipts
from the property
are determined by including all of the amounts the fiduciary
receives or pays with respect to the property, whether those
amounts accrued or became due before, on or after the date of a
decedent's death or an income interest's terminating event, and
by making a reasonable provision for amounts that the fiduciary
believes the estate or terminating income interest may become
obligated to pay after the property is distributed.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 201 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Terminating income interests and successive income interests.
A trust that provides for a single income beneficiary and an
outright distribution of the remainder ends when the income
interest ends. A more complex trust may have a number of income
interests, either concurrent or successive, and the trust will
not necessarily end when one of the income interests ends. For
that reason, the Act speaks in terms of income interests ending
and beginning rather than trusts ending and beginning. When an
income interest in a trust ends, the trustee's powers continue
during the winding up period required to complete its
administration. A terminating income interest is one that has
ended but whose administration is not complete.

 
If two or more people are given the right to receive specified
percentages or fractions of the income from a trust concurrently
and one of the concurrent interests ends, e.g., when a
beneficiary dies, the beneficiary's income interest ends but the
trust does not. Similarly, when a trust with only one income
beneficiary ends upon the beneficiary's death, the trust
instrument may provide that part or all of the trust assets shall

 
continue in trust for another income beneficiary. While it is
common to think and speak of this (and even to characterize it in
a trust instrument) as a "new" trust, it is a continuation of the
original trust for a remainder beneficiary who has an income
interest in the trust assets instead of the right to receive them
outright. For purposes of this Act, this is a successive income
interest in the same trust. The fact that a trust may or may not
end when an income interest ends is not significant for purposes
of this Act.

 
If the assets that are subject to a terminating income
interest pass to another trust because the income beneficiary
exercises a general power of appointment over the trust assets,
the recipient trust would be a new trust; and if they pass to
another trust because the beneficiary exercises a nongeneral
power of appointment over the trust assets, the recipient trust
might be a new trust
in some States (see 5A Austin W. Scott & William F. Fratcher, The
Law of Trusts § 640, at 483 (4th ed. 1989)); but for purposes of
this Act a new trust created in these circumstances is also a
successive income interest.

 
Gift of a pecuniary amount. Section 201(3) and (4) provide
different rules for an outright gift of a pecuniary amount and a
gift in trust of a pecuniary amount; this is the same approach
used in Section 5(b)(2) of the 1962 Act.

 
Interest on pecuniary amounts. Section 201(3) provides that
the beneficiary of an outright pecuniary amount is to receive the
interest or other amount provided by applicable law if there is
no provision in the will or the terms of the trust. Many States
have no applicable law that provides for interest or some other
amount to be paid on an outright pecuniary gift under an inter
vivos trust; this section provides that in such a case the
interest or other amount to be paid shall be the same as the
interest or other amount required to be paid on testamentary
pecuniary gifts. This provision is intended to accord gifts
under inter vivos instruments the same treatment as testamentary
gifts. The various state authorities that provide for the amount
that a beneficiary of an outright pecuniary amount is entitled to
receive are collected in Richard B. Covey, Marital Deduction and
Credit Shelter Dispositions and the Use of Formula Provisions,
App. B (4th ed. 1997).

 
Administration expenses and interest on death taxes. Under
Section 201(2)(B) a fiduciary may pay administration expenses and
interest on death taxes from either income or principal. An
advantage of permitting the fiduciary to choose the source of the
payment is that, if the fiduciary's decision is consistent with
the decision to deduct these expenses for income tax purposes or
estate tax purposes, it eliminates the need to adjust between

 
principal and income that may arise when, for example, an expense
that is paid from principal is deducted for income tax purposes
or an expense that is paid from income is deducted for estate tax
purposes.

 
The United States Supreme Court has considered the question of
whether an estate tax marital deduction or charitable deduction
should be reduced when administration expenses are paid from
income produced by property passing in trust for a surviving
spouse or for charity and deducted for income tax purposes. The
Court rejected the IRS position that administration expenses
properly paid from income under the terms of the trust or state
law must reduce the amount of a marital or charitable transfer,
and held that the value of the transferred property is not
reduced for estate tax purposes unless the administration
expenses are material in light of the income the trust corpus
could have been expected to generate. Commissioner v. Estate of
Otis C. Hubert, 117 S.Ct. 1124 (1997).
The provision in Section 201(2)(B) permits a fiduciary to pay and
deduct administration expenses from income only to the extent
that it will not cause the reduction or loss of an estate tax
marital or charitable contributions deduction, which means that
the limit on the amount payable from income will be established
eventually by Treasury Regulations.

 
Interest on estate taxes. The IRS agrees that interest on
estate and inheritance taxes may be deducted for income tax
purposes without having to reduce the estate tax deduction for
amounts passing to a charity or surviving spouse, whether the
interest is paid from principal or income. Rev. Rul. 9348, 932
C.B. 270. For estates of persons who died before 1998, a
fiduciary may not want to deduct for income tax purposes interest
on estate tax that is deferred under Section 6166 or 6163 because
deducting that interest for estate tax purposes may produce more
beneficial results, especially if the estate has little or no
income or the income tax bracket is significantly lower than the
estate tax bracket. For estates of persons who die after 1997,
no estate tax or income tax deduction will be allowed for
interest paid on estate tax that is deferred under Section 6166.
However, interest on estate tax deferred under Section 6163 will
continue to be deductible for both purposes, and interest on
estate tax deficiencies will continue to be deductible for estate
tax purposes if an election under Section 6166 is not in effect.

 
Under the 1962 Act, Section 13(c)(5) charges interest on
estate and inheritance taxes to principal. The 1931 Act has no
provision. Section 501(3) of this Act provides that, except to
the extent provided in Section 201(2)(B) or (C), all interest
must be paid from income.

 
§7-722.__Distribution to residuary and remainder beneficiaries

 
(a)__Each beneficiary described in section 7-721, subsection
(d) is entitled to receive a portion of the net income equal to
the beneficiary's fractional interest in undistributed principal
assets, using values as of the distribution date.__If a fiduciary
makes more than one distribution of assets to beneficiaries to
whom this section applies, each beneficiary, including one who
does not receive part of the distribution, is entitled, as of
each distribution date, to the net income the fiduciary has
received after the date of death or terminating event or earlier
distribution date but has not distributed as of the current
distribution date.

 
(b)__In determining a beneficiary's share of net income, the
following rules apply.

 
(1)__The beneficiary is entitled to receive a portion of the
net income equal to the beneficiary's fractional interest in
the undistributed principal assets immediately before the
distribution date, including assets that later may be sold
to meet principal obligations.

 
(2)__The beneficiary's fractional interest in the
undistributed principal assets must be calculated without
regard to property specifically given to a beneficiary and
property required to pay pecuniary amounts not in trust.

 
(3)__The beneficiary's fractional interest in the
undistributed principal assets must be calculated on the
basis of the aggregate value of those assets as of the
distribution date without reducing the value by any unpaid
principal obligation.

 
(4)__The distribution date for purposes of this section may
be the date as of which the fiduciary calculates the value
of the assets if that date is reasonably near the date on
which assets are actually distributed.

 
(c)__If a fiduciary does not distribute all of the collected
but undistributed net income to each person as of a distribution
date, the fiduciary shall maintain appropriate records showing
the interest of each beneficiary in that net income.

 
(d)__A fiduciary may apply the rules in this section, to the
extent that the fiduciary considers it appropriate, to net gain
or loss realized after the date of death or terminating event or
earlier distribution date from the disposition of a principal
asset if this section applies to the income from the asset.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 202 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Relationship to prior Acts. Section 202 retains the concept
in Section 5(b)(2) of the 1962 Act that the residuary legatees of
estates are to receive net income earned during the period of
administration on the basis of their proportionate interests in
the undistributed assets when distributions are made. It changes
the basis for determining their proportionate interests by using
asset values as of a date reasonably near the time of
distribution instead of inventory values; it extends the
application of these rules to distributions from terminating
trusts; and it extends these rules to gain or loss realized from
the disposition of assets during administration, an omission in
the 1962 Act that has been noted by several commentators. See,
e.g., Richard B. Covey,
Marital Deduction and Credit Shelter Dispositions and the Use of
Formula Provisions 91 (4th ed. 1998); Thomas H. Cantrill,
Fractional or Percentage Residuary Bequests: Allocation of
Postmortem Income, Gain and Unrealized Appreciation, 10 Prob.
Notes 322, 327 (1985).

 
SUBPART 3

 
APPORTIONMENT AT BEGINNING

 
AND END OF INCOME INTEREST

 
§7-731.__When right to income begins and ends

 
(a)__An income beneficiary is entitled to net income from the
date on which the income interest begins.__An income interest
begins on the date specified in the terms of the trust or, if no
date is specified, on the date an asset becomes subject to a
trust or successive income interest.

 
(b)__An asset becomes subject to a trust:

 
(1)__On the date it is transferred to the trust in the case
of an asset that is transferred to a trust during the
transferor's life;

 
(2)__On the date of a testator's death in the case of an
asset that becomes subject to a trust by reason of a will,
even if there is an intervening period of administration of
the testator's estate; or

 
(3)__On the date of an individual's death in the case of an
asset that is transferred to a fiduciary by a 3rd party
because of the individual's death.

 
(c)__An asset becomes subject to a successive income interest
on the day after the preceding income interest ends, as
determined under subsection (d), even if there is an intervening
period of administration to wind up the preceding income
interest.

 
(d)__An income interest ends on the day before an income
beneficiary dies or another terminating event occurs or on the
last day of a period during which there is no beneficiary to whom
a trustee may distribute income.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 301 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Period during which there is no beneficiary. The purpose of
the second part of subsection (d) is to provide that, at the end
of a period during which there is no beneficiary to whom a
trustee may distribute income, the trustee must apply the same
apportionment rules that apply when a mandatory income interest
ends. This provision would apply, for example, if a settlor
creates a trust for grandchildren before any grandchildren are
born. When the first grandchild is born, the period preceding
the date of birth is treated as having ended, followed by a
successive income interest, and the apportionment rules in
Sections 302 and 303 apply accordingly if the terms of the trust
do not contain different provisions.

 
§7-732.__Apportionment of receipts and disbursements when

 
decedent dies or income interest begins

 
(a)__A trustee shall allocate an income receipt or
disbursement other than one to which section 7-721, subsection
(a) applies to principal if its due date occurs before a decedent
dies in the case of an estate or before an income interest begins
in the case of a trust or successive income interest.

 
(b)__A trustee shall allocate an income receipt or
disbursement to income if its due date occurs on or after the
date on which a decedent dies or an income interest begins and it
is a periodic due date.__An income receipt or disbursement must
be treated as accruing from day to day if its due date is not
periodic or it has no due date.__The portion of the receipt or
disbursement accruing before the date on which a decedent dies or

 
an income interest begins must be allocated to principal and the
balance must be allocated to income.

 
(c)__An item of income or an obligation is due on the date the
payor is required to make a payment.__If a payment date is not
stated, there is no due date for the purposes of this Part.__
Distributions to shareholders or other owners from an entity to
which section 7-741 applies are deemed to be due on the date
fixed by the entity for determining who is entitled to receive
the distribution or, if no date is fixed, on the declaration date
for the distribution.__A due date is periodic for receipts or
disbursements that must be paid at regular intervals under a
lease or an obligation to pay interest or if an entity
customarily makes distributions at regular intervals.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 302 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Acts. Professor Bogert stated that "Section 4 of the
[1962] Act makes a change with respect to the apportionment of
the income of trust property not due until after the trust began
but which accrued in part before the commencement of the trust.
It treats such income as to be credited entirely to the income
account in the case of a living trust, but to be apportioned
between capital and income in the case of a testamentary trust.
The [1931] Act apportions such income in the case of both types
of trusts, except in the case of corporate dividends." George G.
Bogert, The Revised Uniform Principal and Income Act, 38 Notre
Dame Law. 50, 52 (1962). The 1962 Act also provides that an
asset passing to an inter vivos trust by a bequest in the
settlor's will is governed by the rule that applies to a
testamentary trust, so that different rules apply to assets
passing to an inter vivos trust depending upon whether they were
transferred to the trust during the settlor's life or by his
will.

 
Having several different rules that apply to similar
transactions is confusing. In order to simplify administration,
Section 302 applies the same rule to inter vivos trusts
(revocable and irrevocable), testamentary trusts, and assets that
become subject to an inter vivos trust by a testamentary bequest.

 
Periodic payments. Under Section 302, a periodic payment is
principal if it is due but unpaid before a decedent dies or
before an asset becomes subject to a trust, but the next payment
is allocated entirely to income and is not apportioned. Thus,
periodic receipts such as rents, dividends, interest, and
annuities, and disbursements such as the interest portion of a

 
mortgage payment, are not apportioned. This is the original
common law rule. Edwin A. Howes, Jr., The American Law Relating
to Income and Principal 70 (1905). In trusts in which a
surviving spouse is dependent upon a regular flow of cash from
the decedent's securities portfolio, this rule will help to
maintain payments to the spouse at the same level as before the
settlor's death. Under the 1962 Act, the pre-death portion of
the first periodic payment due after death is apportioned to
principal in the case of a testamentary trust or securities
bequeathed by will to an inter vivos trust.

 
Nonperiodic payments. Under the second sentence of Section
302(b), interest on an obligation that does not provide a due
date for the interest payment, such as interest on an income tax
refund, would be apportioned to principal to the extent it
accrues before a person dies or an income interest begins unless
the obligation is specifically given to a devisee or remainder
beneficiary, in which case all of the accrued interest passes
under Section 201(1) to the person who receives the obligation.
The same rule applies to
interest on an obligation that has a due date but does not
provide for periodic payments. If there is no stated interest on
the obligation, such as a zero coupon bond, and the proceeds from
the obligation are received more than one year after it is
purchased or acquired by the trustee, the entire amount received
is principal under Section 406.

 
§7-733.__Apportionment when income interest ends

 
(a)__In this section, "undistributed income" means net income
received before the date on which an income interest ends.__The
term does not include an item of income or expense that is due or
accrued or net income that has been added or is required to be
added to principal under the terms of the trust.

 
(b)__When a mandatory income interest ends, the trustee shall
pay to a mandatory income beneficiary who survives that date, or
the estate of a deceased mandatory income beneficiary whose death
causes the interest to end, the beneficiary's share of the
undistributed income that is not disposed of under the terms of
the trust unless the beneficiary has an unqualified power to
revoke more than 5% of the trust immediately before the income
interest ends.__In the latter case, the undistributed income from
the portion of the trust that may be revoked must be added to
principal.

 
(c)__When a trustee's obligation to pay a fixed annuity or a
fixed fraction of the value of the trust's assets ends, the
trustee shall prorate the final payment to the extent required by
applicable law to accomplish a purpose of the trust or its

 
settlor relating to income, gift, estate or other tax
requirements.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 303 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Acts. Both the 1931 Act (Section 4) and the 1962 Act
(Section 4(d)) provide that a deceased income beneficiary's
estate is entitled to the undistributed income. The Drafting
Committee concluded that this is probably not what most settlors
would want, and that, with respect to undistributed income, most
settlors would favor the income beneficiary first, the remainder
beneficiaries second, and the income beneficiary's heirs last, if
at all. However, it decided not to eliminate this provision to
avoid causing disputes about whether the trustee should have
distributed collected cash before the income beneficiary died.

 
Accrued periodic payments. Under the prior Acts, an income
beneficiary or his estate is entitled to receive a portion of any
payments, other than dividends, that are due or that have accrued
when the income interest terminates. The last sentence of
subsection (a) changes that rule by providing that such items are
not included in undistributed income. The items affected include
periodic payments of interest, rent, and dividends, as well as
items of income that accrue over a longer period of time; the
rule also applies to expenses that are due or accrued.

 
Example - accrued periodic payments. The rules in Section 302
and Section 303 work in the following manner: Assume that a
periodic payment of rent that is due on July 20 has not been paid
when an income interest ends on July 30; the successive income
interest begins on July 31, and the rent payment that was due on
July 20 is paid on August 3. Under Section 302(a), the July 20
payment is added to the principal of the successive income
interest when received. Under Section 302(b), the entire
periodic payment of rent that is due on August 20 is income when
received by the successive income interest. Under Section 303,
neither the income beneficiary of the terminated income interest
nor the beneficiary's estate is entitled to any part of either
the July 20 or the August 20 payments because neither one was
received before the income interest ended on July 30. The same
principles apply to expenses of the trust.

 
Beneficiary with an unqualified power to revoke. The
requirement in subsection (b) to pay undistributed income to a
mandatory income beneficiary or her estate does not apply to the
extent the beneficiary has an unqualified power to revoke more

 
than five percent of the trust immediately before the income
interest ends. Without this exception, subsection (b) would
apply to a revocable living trust whose settlor is the mandatory
income beneficiary during her lifetime, even if her will provides
that all of the assets in the probate estate are to be
distributed to the trust.

 
If a trust permits the beneficiary to withdraw all or a part
of the trust principal after attaining a specified age and the
beneficiary attains that age but fails to withdraw all of the
principal that she is permitted to withdraw, a trustee is not
required to pay her or her estate the undistributed income
attributable to the portion of the principal that she left in the
trust. The assumption underlying this rule is that the
beneficiary has either provided for the disposition of the trust
assets (including the undistributed income) by exercising a power
of appointment that she has been given or has not withdrawn the
assets because she is willing to have the principal and
undistributed income be distributed under the terms of the trust.
If the beneficiary has the power to withdraw 25% of the trust
principal,
the trustee must pay to her or her estate the undistributed
income from the 75% that she cannot withdraw.

 
SUBPART 4

 
ALLOCATION OF RECEIPTS DURING

 
ADMINISTRATION OF TRUST

 
§7-741.__Character of receipts

 
(a)__In this section, "entity" means a corporation,
partnership, limited liability company, regulated investment
company, real estate investment trust, common trust fund or any
other organization in which a trustee has an interest other than
a trust or estate to which section 7-742 applies, a business or
activity to which section 7-743 applies or an asset-backed
security to which section 7-755 applies.

 
(b)__Except as otherwise provided in this section, a trustee
shall allocate to income money received from an entity.

 
(c)__A trustee shall allocate the following receipts from an
entity to principal:

 
(1)__Property other than money;

 
(2)__Money received in one distribution or a series of
related distributions in exchange for part or all of a
trust's interest in the entity;

 
(3)__Money received in total or partial liquidation of the
entity; and

 
(4)__Money received from an entity that is a regulated
investment company or a real estate investment trust if the
money distributed is a capital gain dividend for federal
income tax purposes.

 
(d)__Money is received in partial liquidation:

 
(1)__To the extent that the entity, at or near the time of a
distribution, indicates that it is a distribution in partial
liquidation; or

 
(2)__If the total amount of money and property received in a
distribution or series of related distributions is greater
than 20% of the entity's gross assets, as shown by the
entity's year-end financial statements immediately preceding
the initial receipt.

 
(e)__Money is not received in partial liquidation, nor may it
be taken into account under subsection (d), paragraph (2), to the
extent that it does not exceed the amount of income tax that a
trustee or beneficiary must pay on taxable income of the entity
that distributes the money.

 
(f)__A trustee may rely upon a statement made by an entity
about the source or character of a distribution if the statement
is made at or near the time of distribution by the entity's board
of directors or other person or group of persons authorized to
exercise powers to pay money or transfer property comparable to
those of a corporation's board of directors.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 401 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Entities to which Section 401 applies. The reference to
partnerships in Section 401(a) is intended to include all forms
of partnerships, including limited partnerships, limited
liability partnerships, and variants that have slightly different
names and characteristics from State to State. The section does
not apply, however, to receipts from an interest in property that
a trust owns as a tenant in common with one or more co-owners,
nor would it apply to an interest in a joint venture if, under
applicable law, the trust's interest is regarded as that of a
tenant in common.

 
Capital gain dividends. Under the Internal Revenue Code and
the Income Tax Regulations, a "capital gain dividend" from a
mutual fund or real estate investment trust is the excess of the
fund's or trust's net long-term capital gain over its net short-
term capital loss. As a result, a capital gain dividend does not
include any net short-term capital gain, and cash received by a
trust because of a net short-term capital gain is income under
this Act.

 
Reinvested dividends. If a trustee elects (or continues an
election made by its predecessor) to reinvest dividends in shares
of stock of a distributing corporation or fund, whether evidenced
by new certificates or entries on the books of the distributing
entity, the new shares would be principal. Making or continuing
such an election would be equivalent to deciding under Section
104 to transfer income to principal in order to comply with
Section 103(b). However, if the trustee makes or continues the
election for a reason other than to comply with Section 103(b),
e.g., to make an investment without incurring brokerage
commissions, the trustee should transfer cash from principal to
income in an amount equal to the reinvested dividends.

 
Distribution of property. The 1962 Act describes a number of
types of property that would be principal if distributed by a
corporation. This becomes unwieldy in a section that applies to
both corporations and all other entities. By stating that
principal includes the distribution of any property other than
money, Section 401 embraces all of the items enumerated in
Section 6 of the 1962 Act as well as any other form of
nonmonetary distribution not specifically mentioned in that Act.

 
Partial liquidations. Under subsection (d)(1), any
distribution designated by the entity as a partial liquidating
distribution is principal regardless of the percentage of total
assets that it represents. If a distribution exceeds 20% of the
entity's gross assets, the entire distribution is a partial
liquidation under subsection (d)(2) whether or not the entity
describes it as a partial liquidation. In determining whether a
distribution is greater than 20% of the gross assets, the portion
of the distribution that does not exceed the amount of income tax
that the trustee or a beneficiary must pay on the entity's
taxable income is ignored.

 
Other large distributions. A cash distribution may be quite
large (for example, more than 10% but not more than 20% of the
entity's gross assets) and have characteristics that suggest it
should be treated as principal rather than income. For example,
an entity may have received cash from a source other than the
conduct of its normal business operations because it sold an
investment asset; or because it sold a business asset other than

 
one held for sale to customers in the normal course of its
business and did not replace it; or it borrowed a large sum of
money and secured the repayment of the loan with a substantial
asset; or a principal source of its cash was from assets such as
mineral interests, 90% of which would have been allocated to
principal if the trust had owned the assets directly. In such a
case the trustee, after considering the total return from the
portfolio as a whole and the income component of that return, may
decide to exercise the power under Section 104(a) to make an
adjustment between income and principal, subject to the
limitations in Section 104(c).

 
§7-742.__Distribution from trust or estate

 
A trustee shall allocate to income an amount received as a
distribution of income from a trust or an estate in which the
trust has an interest other than a purchased interest, and shall
allocate to principal an amount received as a distribution of
principal from such a trust or estate.__If a trustee purchases an
interest in a trust that is an investment entity, or a decedent
or donor transfers an interest in such a trust to a trustee,
section 7-741
or 7-755 applies to a receipt from the trust.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 402 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Terms of the distributing trust or estate. Under Section
103(a), a trustee is to allocate receipts in accordance with the
terms of the recipient trust or, if there is no provision, in
accordance with this Act. However, in determining whether a
distribution from another trust or an estate is income or
principal, the trustee should also determine what the terms of
the distributing trust or estate say about the distribution - for
example, whether they direct that the distribution, even though
made from the income of the distributing trust or estate, is to
be added to principal of the recipient trust. Such a provision
should override the terms of this Act, but if the terms of the
recipient trust contain a provision requiring such a distribution
to be allocated to income, the trustee may have to obtain a
judicial resolution of the conflict between the terms of the two
documents.

 
Investment trusts. An investment entity to which the second
sentence of this section applies includes a mutual fund, a common
trust fund, a business trust or other entity organized as a trust
for the purpose of receiving capital contributed by investors,

 
investing that capital, and managing investment assets, including
asset-backed security arrangements to which Section 415 applies.
See John H. Langbein, The Secret Life of the Trust: The Trust as
an Instrument of Commerce, 107 Yale L.J. 165 (1997).

 
§7-743.__Business and other activities conducted by trustee

 
(a)__If a trustee who conducts a business or other activity
determines that it is in the best interest of all the
beneficiaries to account separately for the business or activity
instead of accounting for it as part of the trust's general
accounting records, the trustee may maintain separate accounting
records for its transactions, whether or not its assets are
segregated from other trust assets.

 
(b)__A trustee who accounts separately for a business or other
activity may determine the extent to which its net cash receipts
must be retained for working capital, the acquisition or
replacement of fixed assets, and other reasonably foreseeable
needs of the business or activity, and the extent to which the
remaining net cash receipts are accounted for as principal or
income in the trust's general accounting records.__If a trustee
sells assets of the business or other activity, other than in the
ordinary course
of the business or activity, the trustee shall account for the
net amount received as principal in the trust's general
accounting records to the extent the trustee determines that the
amount received is no longer required in the conduct of the
business.

 
(c)__Activities for which a trustee may maintain separate
accounting records include:

 
(1)__Retail, manufacturing, service and other traditional
business activities;

 
(2)__Farming;

 
(3)__Raising and selling livestock and other animals;

 
(4)__Management of rental properties;

 
(5)__Extraction of minerals and other natural resources;

 
(6)__Timber operations; and

 
(7)__Activities to which section 7-754 applies.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 403 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Purpose and scope. The provisions in Section 403 are intended
to give greater flexibility to a trustee who operates a business
or other activity in proprietorship form rather than in a wholly-
owned corporation (or, where permitted by state law, a single-
member limited liability company), and to facilitate the
trustee's ability to decide the extent to which the net receipts
from the activity should be allocated to income, just as the
board of directors of a corporation owned entirely by the trust
would decide the amount of the annual dividend to be paid to the
trust. It permits a trustee to account for farming or livestock
operations, rental properties, oil and gas properties, timber
operations, and activities in derivatives and options as though
they were held by a separate entity. It is not intended,
however, to permit a trustee to account separately for a
traditional securities portfolio to avoid the provisions of this
Act that apply to such securities.

 
Section 403 permits the trustee to account separately for each
business or activity for which the trustee determines separate
accounting is appropriate. A trustee with a computerized
accounting system may account for these activities in a
"subtrust"; an individual trustee may continue to use the
business and
record-keeping methods employed by the decedent or transferor who
may have conducted the business under an assumed name. The
intent of this section is to give the trustee broad authority to
select business record-keeping methods that best suit the
activity in which the trustee is engaged.

 
If a fiduciary liquidates a sole proprietorship or other
activity to which Section 403 applies, the proceeds would be
added to principal, even though derived from the liquidation of
accounts receivable, because the proceeds would no longer be
needed in the conduct of the business. If the liquidation occurs
during probate or during an income interest's winding up period,
none of the proceeds would be income for purposes of Section 201.

 
Separate accounts. A trustee may or may not maintain separate
bank accounts for business activities that are accounted for
under Section 403. A professional trustee may decide not to
maintain separate bank accounts, but an individual trustee,
especially one who has continued a decedent's business practices,
may continue the same banking arrangements that were used during
the decedent's lifetime. In either case, the trustee is
authorized to decide to what extent cash is to be retained as
part of the business assets and to what extent it is to be
transferred to the trust's general accounts, either as income or
principal.

 
§7-744.__Principal receipts

 
A trustee shall allocate to principal:

 
(a)__To the extent not allocated to income under this Part,
assets received from a transferor during the transferor's
lifetime, a decedent's estate, a trust with a terminating income
interest or a payor under a contract naming the trust or its
trustee as beneficiary;

 
(b)__Money or other property received from the sale, exchange,
liquidation or change in form of a principal asset, including
realized profit, subject to this subpart;

 
(c)__Amounts recovered from 3rd parties to reimburse the trust
because of disbursements described in section 7-762, subsection
(a), paragraph (7) or for other reasons to the extent not based
on the loss of income;

 
(d)__Proceeds of property taken by eminent domain, but a
separate award made for the loss of income with respect to an
accounting period during which a current income beneficiary had a
mandatory income interest is income;

 
(e)__Net income received in an accounting period during which
there is no beneficiary to whom a trustee may or must distribute
income; and

 
(f)__Other receipts as provided in sections 7-748 to 7-755.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 404 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Eminent domain awards. Even though the award in an eminent
domain proceeding may include an amount for the loss of future
rent on a lease, if that amount is not separately stated the
entire award is principal. The rule is the same in the 1931 and
1962 Acts.

 
§7-745.__Rental property

 
To the extent that a trustee accounts for receipts from rental
property pursuant to this section, the trustee shall allocate to
income an amount received as rent of real or personal property,
including an amount received for cancellation or

 
renewal of a lease.__An amount received as a refundable deposit,
including a security deposit or a deposit that is to be applied
as rent for future periods, must be added to principal and held
subject to the terms of the lease and is not available for
distribution to a beneficiary until the trustee's contractual
obligations have been satisfied with respect to that amount.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 405 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Application of Section 403. This section applies to the
extent that the trustee does not account separately under Section
403 for the management of rental properties owned by the trust.

 
Receipts that are capital in nature. A portion of the payment
under a lease may be a reimbursement of principal expenditures
for improvements to the leased property that is characterized as
rent for purposes of invoking contractual or statutory remedies
for nonpayment. If the trustee is accounting for rental income
under Section 405, a transfer from income to reimburse principal
may be appropriate under Section 504 to the extent that some of
the "rent" is really a reimbursement for improvements. This set
of facts could also be a relevant factor for a trustee to
consider under Section 104(b) in deciding whether and to what
extent to make an
adjustment between principal and income under Section 104(a)
after considering the return from the portfolio as a whole.

 
§7-746.__Obligation to pay money

 
(a)__An amount received as interest, whether determined at a
fixed, variable or floating rate, on an obligation to pay money
to the trustee, including an amount received as consideration for
prepaying principal, must be allocated to income without any
provision for amortization of premium.

 
(b)__A trustee shall allocate to principal an amount received
from the sale, redemption or other disposition of an obligation
to pay money to the trustee more than one year after it is
purchased or acquired by the trustee, including an obligation
whose purchase price or value when it is acquired is less than
its value at maturity.__If the obligation matures within one year
after it is purchased or acquired by the trustee, an amount
received in excess of its purchase price or its value when
acquired by the trust must be allocated to income.

 
(c)__This section does not apply to an obligation to which
section 7-749, 7-750, 7-751, 7-752, 7-754 or 7-755 applies.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 406 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Variable or floating interest rates. The reference in
subsection (a) to variable or floating interest rate obligations
is intended to clarify that, even though an obligation's interest
rate may change from time to time based upon changes in an index
or other market indicator, an obligation to pay money containing
a variable or floating rate provision is subject to this section
and is not to be treated as a derivative financial instrument
under Section 414.

 
Discount obligations. Subsection (b) applies to all
obligations acquired at a discount, including short-term
obligations such as U.S. Treasury Bills, long-term obligations
such as U.S. Savings Bonds, zero-coupon bonds, and discount bonds
that pay interest during part, but not all, of the period before
maturity. Under subsection (b), the entire increase in value of
these obligations is principal when the trustee receives the
proceeds from the disposition unless the obligation, when
acquired, has a maturity of less than one year. In order to have
one rule that applies to all discount obligations, the Act
eliminates the provision in the 1962 Act for the payment from
principal of an amount equal to the increase in the value of U.S.
Series E bonds. The provision for
bonds that mature within one year after acquisition by the
trustee is derived from the Illinois act. 760 ILCS 15/8 (1996).

 
Subsection (b) also applies to inflation-indexed bonds - any
increase in principal due to inflation after issuance is
principal upon redemption if the bond matures more than one year
after the trustee acquires it; if it matures within one year, all
of the increase, including any attributable to an inflation
adjustment, is income.

 
Effect of Section 104. In deciding whether and to what extent
to exercise the power to adjust between principal and income
granted by Section 104(a), a relevant factor for the trustee to
consider is the effect on the portfolio as a whole of having a
portion of the assets invested in bonds that do not pay interest
currently.

 
§7-747.__Insurance policies and similar contracts

 
(a)__Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b), a trustee
shall allocate to principal the proceeds of a life insurance
policy or other contract in which the trust or its trustee is
named as beneficiary, including a contract that insures the trust
or its trustee against loss for damage to, destruction of or loss
of title to a trust asset.__The trustee shall allocate dividends
on an insurance policy to income if the premiums on the policy
are paid from income, and to principal if the premiums are paid
from principal.

 
(b)__A trustee shall allocate to income proceeds of a contract
that insures the trustee against loss of occupancy or other use
by an income beneficiary, loss of income or, subject to section
7-743, loss of profits from a business.

 
(c)__This section does not apply to a contract to which
section 7-749 applies.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 407 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
§7-748.__Insubstantial allocations not required

 
If a trustee determines that an allocation between principal
and income required by section 7-749, 7-750, 7-751, 7-752 or 7-
755 is insubstantial, the trustee may allocate the entire amount
to principal unless one of the circumstances described in section
7-704, subsection (c) applies to the allocation.__This power may
be exercised by a cotrustee in the circumstances described in
section 7-704, subsection (d) and may be released for the reasons
and in
the manner described in section 7-704, subsection (e).__An
allocation is presumed to be insubstantial if:

 
(a)__The amount of the allocation would increase or decrease
net income in an accounting period, as determined before the
allocation, by less than 10%; or

 
(b)__The value of the asset producing the receipt for which
the allocation would be made is less than 10% of the total value
of the trust's assets at the beginning of the accounting period.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 408 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
This section is intended to relieve a trustee from making
relatively small allocations while preserving the trustee's right
to do so if an allocation is large in terms of absolute dollars.

 
For example, assume that a trust's assets, which include a
working interest in an oil well, have a value of $1,000,000; the
net income from the assets other than the working interest is
$40,000; and the net receipts from the working interest are $400.
The trustee may allocate all of the net receipts from the working
interest to principal instead of allocating 10%, or $40, to
income under Section 411. If the net receipts from the working
interest are $35,000, so that the amount allocated to income
under Section 411 would be $3,500, the trustee may decide that
this amount is sufficiently significant to the income beneficiary
that the allocation provided for by Section 411 should be made,
even though the trustee is still permitted under Section 408 to
allocate all of the net receipts to principal because the $3,500
would increase the net income of $40,000, as determined before
making an allocation under Section 411, by less than 10%.
Section 408 will also relieve a trustee from having to allocate
net receipts from the sale of trees in a small woodlot between
principal and income.

 
While the allocation to principal of small amounts under this
section should not be a cause for concern for tax purposes,
allocations are not permitted under this section in circumstances
described in Section 104(c) to eliminate claims that the power in
this section has adverse tax consequences.

 
§7-749.__Deferred compensation, annuities and similar payments

 
(a)__In this section, "payment" means a payment that a trustee
may receive over a fixed number of years or during the life of
one or more individuals because of services rendered or property
transferred to the payor in exchange for future payments.__The
term includes a payment made in money or property from the
payor's general assets or from a separate fund created by the
payor, including a private or commercial annuity, an individual
retirement account and a pension, profit-sharing, stock-bonus or
stock-ownership plan.

 
(b)__To the extent that a payment is characterized as interest
or a dividend or a payment made in lieu of interest or a
dividend, a trustee shall allocate it to income.__The trustee
shall allocate to principal the balance of the payment and any
other payment received in the same accounting period that is not
characterized as interest, a dividend or an equivalent payment.

 
(c)__If no part of a payment is characterized as interest, a
dividend or an equivalent payment, and all or part of the payment

 
is required to be made, a trustee shall allocate to income 10% of
the part that is required to be made during the accounting period
and the balance to principal.__If no part of a payment is
required to be made or the payment received is the entire amount
to which the trustee is entitled, the trustee shall allocate the
entire payment to principal.__For purposes of this subsection, a
payment is not "required to be made" to the extent that it is
made because the trustee exercises a right of withdrawal.

 
(d)__If, to obtain an estate tax marital deduction for a
trust, a trustee must allocate more of a payment to income than
provided for by this section, the trustee shall allocate to
income the additional amount necessary to obtain the marital
deduction.

 
(e)__This section does not apply to payments to which section
7-750 applies.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 409 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Scope. Section 409 applies to amounts received under
contractual arrangements that provide for payments to a third
party beneficiary as a result of services rendered or property
transferred to the payer. While the right to receive such
payments is a liquidating asset of the kind described in Section
410 (i.e., "an asset whose value will diminish or terminate
because the asset is expected to produce receipts for a period of
limited duration"), these payment rights are covered separately
in Section 409 because of their special characteristics.

 
Section 409 applies to receipts from all forms of annuities
and deferred compensation arrangements, whether the payment will
be received by the trust in a lump sum or in installments over a
period of years. It applies to bonuses that may be received over
two or three years and payments that may last for much longer
periods, including payments from an individual retirement account
(IRA), deferred compensation plan (whether qualified or not
qualified for special federal income tax treatment), and
insurance renewal commissions. It applies to a retirement plan
to which the settlor has made contributions, just as it applies
to an annuity policy that the settlor may have purchased
individually, and it applies to variable annuities, deferred
annuities, annuities issued by commercial insurance companies,
and "private annuities" arising from the sale of property to
another individual or entity in exchange for payments that are to

 
be made for the life of one or more individuals. The section
applies whether the payments begin when the payment right becomes
subject to the trust or are deferred until a future date, and it
applies whether payments are made in cash or in kind, such as
employer stock (in-kind payments usually will be made in a single
distribution that will be allocated to principal under the second
sentence of subsection (c)).

 
The 1962 Act. Under Section 12 of the 1962 Act, receipts from
"rights to receive payments on a contract for deferred
compensation" are allocated to income each year in an amount "not
in excess of 5% per year" of the property's inventory value.
While "not in excess of 5%" suggests that the annual allocation
may range from zero to 5% of the inventory value, in practice the
rule is usually treated as prescribing a 5% allocation. The
inventory value is usually the present value of all the future
payments, and since the inventory value is determined as of the
date on which the payment right becomes subject to the trust, the
inventory value, and thus the amount of the annual income
allocation, depends significantly on the applicable interest rate
on the decedent's date of death. That rate may be much higher or
lower than the average long-term interest rate. The amount
determined under the 5% formula tends to become fixed and remain
unchanged even though the amount received by the trust increases
or decreases.

 
Allocations Under Section 409(b). Section 409(b) applies to
plans whose terms characterize payments made under the plan as
dividends, interest, or payments in lieu of dividends or
interest. For example, some deferred compensation plans that
hold debt obligations or stock of the plan's sponsor in an
account for future delivery to the person rendering the services
provide for the annual payment to that person of dividends
received on the stock or interest received on the debt
obligations. Other plans provide that the account of the person
rendering the services shall be credited with "phantom" shares of
stock and require an annual payment that is equivalent to the
dividends that would be
received on that number of shares if they were actually issued;
or a plan may entitle the person rendering the services to
receive a fixed dollar amount in the future and provide for the
annual payment of interest on the deferred amount during the
period prior to its payment. Under Section 409(b), payments of
dividends, interest or payments in lieu of dividends or interest
under plans of this type are allocated to income; all other
payments received under these plans are allocated to principal.

 
Section 409(b) does not apply to an IRA or an arrangement with
payment provisions similar to an IRA. IRAs and similar
arrangements are subject to the provisions in Section 409(c).

 
Allocations Under Section 409(c). The focus of Section 409,
for purposes of allocating payments received by a trust to or
between principal and income, is on the payment right rather than
on assets that may be held in a fund from which the payments are
made. Thus, if an IRA holds a portfolio of marketable stocks and
bonds, the amount received by the IRA as dividends and interest
is not taken into account in determining the principal and income
allocation except to the extent that the Internal Revenue Service
may require them to be taken into account when the payment is
received by a trust that qualifies for the estate tax marital
deduction (a situation that is provided for in Section 409(d)).
An IRA is subject to federal income tax rules that require
payments to begin by a particular date and be made over a
specific number of years or a period measured by the lives of one
or more persons. The payment right of a trust that is named as a
beneficiary of an IRA is not a right to receive particular items
that are paid to the IRA, but is instead the right to receive an
amount determined by dividing the value of the IRA by the
remaining number of years in the payment period. This payment
right is similar to the right to receive a unitrust amount, which
is normally expressed as an amount equal to a percentage of the
value of the unitrust assets without regard to dividends or
interest that may be received by the unitrust.

 
An amount received from an IRA or a plan with a payment
provision similar to that of an IRA is allocated under Section
409(c), which differentiates between payments that are required
to be made and all other payments. To the extent that a payment
is required to be made (either under federal income tax rules or,
in the case of a plan that is not subject to those rules, under
the terms of the plan), 10% of the amount received is allocated
to income and the balance is allocated to principal. All other
payments are allocated to principal because they represent a
change in the form of a principal asset; Section 409 follows the
rule in Section 404(2), which provides that money or property
received from a change in the form of a principal asset be
allocated to principal.

 
Section 409(c) produces an allocation to income that is
similar to the allocation under the 1962 Act formula if the
annual payments are the same throughout the payment period, and
it is simpler to administer. The amount allocated to income
under Section 409 is not dependent upon the interest rate that is
used for valuation purposes when the decedent dies, and if the
payments received by the trust increase or decrease from year to
year because the fund from which the payment is made increases or
decreases in value, the amount allocated to income will also
increase or decrease.

 
Marital deduction requirements. When an IRA is payable to a
QTIP marital deduction trust, the IRS treats the IRA as separate
terminable interest property and requires that a QTIP election be
made for it. In order to qualify for QTIP treatment, an IRS
ruling states that all of the IRA's income must be distributed
annually to the QTIP marital deduction trust and then must be
allocated to trust income for distribution to the spouse. Rev.
Rul. 8989, 19892 C.B. 231. If an allocation to income under this
Act of 10% of the required distribution from the IRA does not
meet the requirement that all of the IRA's income be distributed
from the trust to the spouse, the provision in subsection (d)
requires the trustee to make a larger allocation to income to the
extent necessary to qualify for the marital deduction. The
requirement of Rev. Rul. 8989 should also be satisfied if the IRA
beneficiary designation permits the spouse to require the trustee
to withdraw the necessary amount from the IRA and distribute it
to her, even though the spouse never actually requires the
trustee to do so. If such a provision is in the beneficiary
designation, a distribution under subsection (d) should not be
necessary.

 
Application of Section 104. Section 104(a) of this Act gives
a trustee who is acting under the prudent investor rule the power
to adjust from principal to income if, considering the portfolio
as a whole and not just receipts from deferred compensation, the
trustee determines that an adjustment is necessary. See Example
(5) in the Comment following Section 104.

 
§7-750.__Liquidating asset

 
(a)__In this section, "liquidating asset" means an asset whose
value will diminish or terminate because the asset is expected to
produce receipts for a period of limited duration.__The term
includes a leasehold, patent, copyright, royalty right and right
to receive payments during a period of more than one year under
an arrangement that does not provide for the payment of interest
on the unpaid balance.__The term does not include a payment
subject to section 7-749, resources subject to section 7-751,
timber subject to section 7-752, an activity subject to section
7-754, an asset subject to section 7-755, or any asset for which
the trustee establishes a reserve for depreciation under section
7-763.

 
(b)__A trustee shall allocate to income 10% of the receipts
from a liquidating asset and the balance to principal.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 410 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Acts. Section 11 of the 1962 Act allocates receipts
from "property subject to depletion" to income in an amount "not
in excess of 5%" of the asset's inventory value. The 1931 Act
has a similar 5% rule that applies when the trustee is under a
duty to change the form of the investment. The 5% rule imposes
on a trust the obligation to pay a fixed annuity to the income
beneficiary until the asset is exhausted. Under both the 1931
and 1962 Acts the balance of each year's receipts is added to
principal. A fixed payment can produce unfair results. The
remainder beneficiary receives all of the receipts from
unexpected growth in the asset, e.g., if royalties on a patent or
copyright increase significantly. Conversely, if the receipts
diminish more rapidly than expected, most of the amount received
by the trust will be allocated to income and little to principal.
Moreover, if the annual payments remain the same for the life of
the asset, the amount allocated to principal will usually be less
than the original inventory value. For these reasons, Section
410 abandons the annuity approach under the 5% rule.

 
Lottery payments. The reference in subsection (a) to rights
to receive payments under an arrangement that does not provide
for the payment of interest includes state lottery prizes and
similar fixed amounts payable over time that are not deferred
compensation arrangements covered by Section 409.

 
§7-751.__Minerals, water and other natural resources

 
(a)__To the extent that a trustee accounts for receipts from
an interest in minerals or other natural resources pursuant to
this section, the trustee shall allocate them as follows.

 
(1)__If received as nominal delay rental or nominal annual
rent on a lease, a receipt must be allocated to income.

 
(2)__If received from a production payment, a receipt must
be allocated to income if and to the extent that the
agreement creating the production payment provides a factor
for interest or its equivalent.__The balance must be
allocated to principal.

 
(3)__If an amount received as a royalty, shut-in-well
payment, take-or-pay payment, bonus or delay rental is more
than nominal, 90% must be allocated to principal and the
balance to income.

 
(4)__If an amount is received from a working interest or any
other interest not provided for in paragraph (1), (2) or
(3), 90% of the net amount received must be allocated to
principal and the balance to income.

 
(b)__An amount received on account of an interest in water
that is renewable must be allocated to income.__If the water is
not renewable, 90% of the amount must be allocated to principal
and the balance to income.

 
(c)__This Part applies whether or not a decedent or donor was
extracting minerals, water or other natural resources before the
interest became subject to the trust.

 
(d)__If a trust owns an interest in minerals, water or other
natural resources on January 1, 2002, the trustee may allocate
receipts from the interest as provided in this Part or in the
manner used by the trustee before January 1, 2002.__If the trust
acquires an interest in minerals, water or other natural
resources after January 1, 2002, the trustee shall allocate
receipts from the interest as provided in this Part.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 411 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Acts. The 1962 Act allocates to principal as a
depletion allowance, 271/2% of the gross receipts, but not more
than 50% of the net receipts after paying expenses. The Internal
Revenue Code no longer provides for a 271/2% depletion allowance,
although the major oilproducing States have retained the 271/2%
provision in their principal and income acts (Texas amended its
Act in 1993, but did not change the depletion provision).
Section 9 of the 1931 Act allocates all of the net proceeds
received as consideration for the "permanent severance of natural
resources from the lands" to principal.

 
Section 411 allocates 90% of the net receipts to principal and
10% to income. A depletion provision that is tied to past or
present Code provisions is undesirable because it causes a large
portion of the oil and gas receipts to be paid out as income. As
wells are depleted, the amount received by the income beneficiary
falls drastically. Allocating a larger portion of the receipts
to
principal enables the trustee to acquire other income producing
assets that will continue to produce income when the mineral
reserves are exhausted.

 
Application of Sections 403 and 408. This section applies to
the extent that the trustee does not account separately for
receipts from minerals and other natural resources under Section
403 or allocate all of the receipts to principal under Section
408.

 
Open mine doctrine. The purpose of Section 411(c) is to
abolish the "open mine doctrine" as it may apply to the rights of
an income beneficiary and a remainder beneficiary in receipts
from the production of minerals from land owned or leased by a
trust. Instead, such receipts are to be allocated to or between
principal and income in accordance with the provisions of this
Act. For a discussion of the open mine doctrine, see generally
3A Austin W. Scott & William F. Fratcher, The Law of Trusts §
239.3 (4th ed. 1988), and Nutter v. Stockton, 626 P.2d 861 (Okla.
1981).

 
Effective date provision. Section 9(b) of the 1962 Act
provides that the natural resources provision does not apply to
property interests held by the trust on the effective date of the
Act, which reflects concerns about the constitutionality of
applying a retroactive administrative provision to interests in
real estate, based on the opinion in the Oklahoma case of
Franklin v. Margay Oil Corporation, 153 P.2d 486, 501 (Okla.
1944). Section 411(d) permits a trustee to use either the method
provided for in this Act or the method used before the Act takes
effect. Lawyers in jurisdictions other than Oklahoma may
conclude that retroactivity is not a problem as to property
situated in their States, and this provision permits trustees to
decide, based on advice from counsel in States whose law may be
different from that of Oklahoma, whether they may apply this
provision retroactively if they conclude that to do so is in the
best interests of the beneficiaries.

 
If the property is in a State other than the State where the
trust is administered, the trustee must be aware that the law of
the property's situs may control this question. The outcome
turns on a variety of questions: whether the terms of the trust
specify that the law of a State other than the situs of the
property shall govern the administration of the trust, and
whether the courts will follow the terms of the trust; whether
the trust's asset is the land itself or a leasehold interest in
the land (as it frequently is with oil and gas property); whether
a leasehold interest or its proceeds should be classified as real
property or personal property, and if as personal property,
whether applicable state law treats it as a movable or an
immovable for conflict of laws purposes. See 5A Austin W. Scott
& William F. Fratcher, The Law of Trusts §§ 648, at 531, 533534;
§ 657, at 600 (4th ed. 1989).

 
§7-752.__Timber

 
(a)__To the extent that a trustee accounts for receipts from
the sale of timber and related products pursuant to this section,
the trustee shall allocate the net receipts:

 
(1)__To income to the extent that the amount of timber
removed from the land does not exceed the rate of growth of
the timber during the accounting periods in which a
beneficiary has a mandatory income interest;

 
(2)__To principal to the extent that the amount of timber
removed from the land exceeds the rate of growth of the
timber or the net receipts are from the sale of standing
timber;

 
(3)__To or between income and principal if the net receipts
are from the lease of timberland or from a contract to cut
timber from land owned by a trust, by determining the amount
of timber removed from the land under the lease or contract
and applying the rules in paragraphs (1) and (2); or

 
(4)__To principal to the extent that advance payments,
bonuses and other payments are not allocated pursuant to
paragraph (1), (2) or (3).

 
(b)__In determining net receipts to be allocated pursuant to
subsection (a), a trustee shall deduct and transfer to principal
a reasonable amount for depletion.

 
(c)__This Part applies whether or not a decedent or transferor
was harvesting timber from the property before it became subject
to the trust.

 
(d)__If a trust owns an interest in timberland on January 1,
2002, the trustee may allocate net receipts from the sale of
timber and related products as provided in this Part or in the
manner used by the trustee before January 1, 2002.__If the trust
acquires an interest in timberland after January 1, 2002, the
trustee shall allocate net receipts from the sale of timber and
related products as provided in this Part.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 412 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Scope of section. The rules in Section 412 are intended to
apply to net receipts from the sale of trees and by-products from

 
harvesting and processing trees without regard to the kind of
trees that are cut or whether the trees are cut before or after a
particular number of years of growth. The rules apply to the
sale of trees that are expected to produce lumber for building
purposes, trees sold as pulpwood, and Christmas and other
ornamental trees. Subsection (a) applies to net receipts from
property owned by the trustee and property leased by the trustee.
The Act is not intended to prevent a tenant in possession of the
property from using wood that he cuts on the property for
personal, noncommercial purposes, such as a Christmas tree,
firewood, mending old fences or building new fences, or making
repairs to structures on the property.

 
Under subsection (a), the amount of net receipts allocated to
income depends upon whether the amount of timber removed is more
or less than the rate of growth. The method of determining the
amount of timber removed and the rate of growth is up to the
trustee, based on methods customarily used for the kind of timber
involved.

 
Application of Sections 403 and 408. This section applies to
the extent that the trustee does not account separately for net
receipts from the sale of timber and related products under
Section 403 or allocate all of the receipts to principal under
Section 408. The option to account for net receipts separately
under Section 403 takes into consideration the possibility that
timber harvesting operations may have been conducted before the
timber property became subject to the trust, and that it may make
sense to continue using accounting methods previously established
for the property. It also permits a trustee to use customary
accounting practices for timber operations even if no harvesting
occurred on the property before it became subject to the trust.

 
§7-753.__Property not productive of income

 
(a)__If a marital deduction is allowed for all or part of a
trust whose assets consist substantially of property that does
not provide the spouse with sufficient income from or use of the
trust assets, and if the amounts that the trustee transfers from
principal to income under section 7-704 and distributes to the
spouse from principal pursuant to the terms of the trust are
insufficient to provide the spouse with the beneficial enjoyment
required to obtain the marital deduction, the spouse may require
the trustee to make property productive of income, convert
property within a reasonable time or exercise the power conferred
by section 7-704, subsection (a).__The trustee may decide which
action or combination of actions to take.

 
(b)__In cases not governed by subsection (a), proceeds from
the sale or other disposition of an asset are principal without

 
regard to the amount of income the asset produces during any
accounting period.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 413 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Acts' Conflict with Uniform Prudent Investor Act.
Section 2(b) of the Uniform Prudent Investor Act provides that
"[a] trustee's investment and management decisions respecting
individual assets must be evaluated not in isolation but in the
context of the trust portfolio as a whole ... ." The
underproductive property provisions in Section 12 of the 1962 Act
and Section 11 of the 1931 Act give the income beneficiary a
right to receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of
underproductive property as "delayed income." In each Act the
provision applies on an asset by asset basis and not by taking
into consideration the trust portfolio as a whole, which
conflicts with the basic precept in Section 2(b) of the Prudent
Investor Act. Moreover, in determining the amount of delayed
income, the prior Acts do not permit a trustee to take into
account the extent to which the trustee may have distributed
principal to the income beneficiary, under principal invasion
provisions in the terms of the trust, to compensate for
insufficient income from the unproductive asset. Under Section
104(b)(7) of this Act, a trustee must consider prior
distributions of principal to the income beneficiary in deciding
whether and to what extent to exercise the power to adjust
conferred by Section 104(a).

 
Duty to make property productive of income. In order to
implement the Uniform Prudent Investor Act, this Act abolishes
the right to receive delayed income from the sale proceeds of an
asset that produces little or no income, but it does not alter
existing state law regarding the income beneficiary's right to
compel the trustee to make property productive of income. As the
law continues to develop in this area, the duty to make property
productive of current income in a particular situation should be
determined by taking into consideration the performance of the
portfolio as a whole and the extent to which a trustee makes
principal distributions to the income beneficiary under the terms
of the trust and adjustments between principal and income under
Section 104 of this Act.

 
Trusts for which the value of the right to receive income is
important for tax reasons may be affected by Reg. §
1.75203(b)(2)(v) Example (1), § 20.75203(b)(2)(v) Examples (1) and (2),
and § 25.75203(b)(2)(v) Examples (1) and (2), which

 
provide that if the income beneficiary does not have the right to
compel the trustee to make the property productive, the income
interest is considered unproductive and may not be valued
actuarially under those sections.

 
Marital deduction trusts. Subsection (a) draws on language in
Reg. § 20.2056(b)5(f)(4) and (5) to enable a trust for a spouse
to qualify for a marital deduction if applicable state law is
unclear about the spouse's right to compel the trustee to make
property productive of income. The trustee should also consider
the application of Section 104 of this Act and the provisions of
Restatement of Trusts 3d: Prudent Investor Rule § 240, at 186,
app. § 240, at 252 (1992). Example (6) in the Comment to Section
104 describes a situation involving the payment from income of
carrying charges on unproductive real estate in which Section 104
may apply.

 
Once the two conditions have occurred - insufficient
beneficial enjoyment from the property and the spouse's demand
that the trustee take action under this section - the trustee
must act; but instead of the formulaic approach of the 1962 Act,
which is triggered only if the trustee sells the property, this
Act permits the trustee to decide whether to make the property
productive of income, convert it, transfer funds from principal
to income, or to take some combination of those actions. The
trustee may rely on the power conferred by Section 104(a) to
adjust from principal to income if the trustee decides that it is
not feasible or appropriate to make the property productive of
income or to convert the property. Given the purpose of Section
413, the power under Section 104(a) would be exercised to
transfer principal to income and not to transfer income to
principal.

 
Section 413 does not apply to a so-called "estate" trust,
which will qualify for the marital deduction, even though the
income may be accumulated for a term of years or for the life of
the surviving spouse, if the terms of the trust require the
principal and undistributed income to be paid to the surviving
spouse's estate when the spouse dies. Reg. §
20.2056(c)2(b)(1)(iii).

 
§7-754.__Derivatives and options

 
(a)__In this section, "derivative" means a contract or
financial instrument or a combination of contracts and financial
instruments that gives a trust the right or obligation to
participate in some or all changes in the price of a tangible or
intangible asset or group of assets, or changes in a rate, an
index of prices or rates or other market indicator for an asset
or a group of assets.

 
(b)__To the extent that a trustee does not account under
section 7-743 for transactions in derivatives, the trustee shall
allocate to principal receipts from and disbursements made in
connection
with those transactions.

 
(c)__If a trustee grants an option to buy property from the
trust, whether or not the trust owns the property when the option
is granted, grants an option that permits another person to sell
property to the trust or acquires an option to buy property for
the trust or an option to sell an asset owned by the trust, and
the trustee or other owner of the asset is required to deliver
the asset if the option is exercised, an amount received for
granting the option must be allocated to principal.__An amount
paid to acquire the option must be paid from principal.__A gain
or loss realized upon the exercise of an option, including an
option granted to a settlor of the trust for services rendered,
must be allocated to principal.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 414 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Scope and application. It is difficult to predict how
frequently and to what extent trustees will invest directly in
derivative financial instruments rather than participating
indirectly through investment entities that may utilize these
instruments in varying degrees. If the trust participates in
derivatives indirectly through an entity, an amount received from
the entity will be allocated under Section 401 and not Section
414. If a trustee invests directly in derivatives to a
significant extent, the expectation is that receipts and
disbursements related to derivatives will be accounted for under
Section 403; if a trustee chooses not to account under Section
403, Section 414(b) provides the default rule. Certain types of
option transactions in which trustees may engage are dealt with
in subsection (c) to distinguish those transactions from ones
involving options that are embedded in derivative financial
instruments.

 
Definition of "derivative." "Derivative" is a difficult term
to define because new derivatives are invented daily as dealers
tailor their terms to achieve specific financial objectives for
particular clients. Since derivatives are typically contract-
based, a derivative can probably be devised for almost any set of
objectives if another party can be found who is willing to assume
the obligations required to meet those objectives.

 
The most comprehensive definition of derivative is in the
Exposure Draft of a Proposed Statement of Financial Accounting
Standards titled "Accounting for Derivative and Similar Financial
Instruments and for Hedging Activities," which was released by
the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on June 20, 1996
(No. 162B).
The definition in Section 414(a) is derived in part from the FASB
definition. The purpose of the definition in subsection (a) is
to implement the substantive rule in subsection (b) that provides
for all receipts and disbursements to be allocated to principal
to the extent the trustee elects not to account for transactions
in derivatives under Section 403. As a result, it is much
shorter than the FASB definition, which serves much more
ambitious objectives.

 
A derivative is frequently described as including futures,
forwards, swaps and options, terms that also require definition,
and the definition in this Act avoids these terms. FASB used the
same approach, explaining in paragraph 65 of the Exposure Draft:

 
The definition of derivative financial instrument in this Statement
includes those financial instruments generally considered to
be derivatives, such as forwards, futures, swaps, options,
and similar instruments. The Board considered defining a
derivative financial instrument by merely referencing those
commonly understood instruments, similar to paragraph 5 of
Statement 119, which says that "... a derivative financial
instrument is a futures, forward, swap, or option contract,
or other financial instrument with similar characteristics."
However, the continued development of financial markets and
innovative financial instruments could ultimately render a
definition based on examples inadequate and obsolete. The
Board, therefore, decided to base the definition of a
derivative financial instrument on a description of the
common characteristics of those instruments in order to
accommodate the accounting for newly developed derivatives.
(Footnote omitted.)

 
Marking to market. A gain or loss that occurs because the
trustee marks securities to market or to another value during an
accounting period is not a transaction in a derivative financial
instrument that is income or principal under the Act - only cash
receipts and disbursements, and the receipt of property in
exchange for a principal asset, affect a trust's principal and
income accounts.

 
Receipt of property other than cash. If a trustee receives
property other than cash upon the settlement of a derivatives

 
transaction, that property would be principal under Section
404(2).

 
Options. Options to which subsection (c) applies include an
option to purchase real estate owned by the trustee and a put
option purchased by a trustee to guard against a drop in value of
a large block of marketable stock that must be liquidated to pay
estate taxes. Subsection (c) would also apply to a continuing
and regular practice of selling call options on securities owned
by the trust if the terms of the option require delivery of the
securities. It does not apply if the consideration received or
given for the option is something other than cash or property,
such as cross-options granted in a buy-sell agreement between
owners of an entity.

 
§7-755.__Asset-backed securities

 
(a)__In this section, "asset-backed security" means an asset
whose value is based upon the right it gives the owner to receive
distributions from the proceeds of financial assets that provide
collateral for the security.__The term includes an asset that
gives the owner the right to receive from the collateral
financial assets only the interest or other current return or
only the proceeds other than interest or current return.__The
term does not include an asset to which section 7-741 or 7-749
applies.

 
(b)__If a trust receives a payment from interest or other
current return and from other proceeds of the collateral
financial assets, the trustee shall allocate to income the
portion of the payment which the payor identifies as being from
interest or other current return and shall allocate the balance
of the payment to principal.

 
(c)__If a trust receives one or more payments in exchange for
the trust's entire interest in an asset-backed security in one
accounting period, the trustee shall allocate the payments to
principal.__If a payment is one of a series of payments that will
result in the liquidation of the trust's interest in the security
over more than one accounting period, the trustee shall allocate
10% of the payment to income and the balance to principal.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 415 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Scope of section. Typical asset-backed securities include
arrangements in which debt obligations such as real estate

 
mortgages, credit card receivables and auto loans are acquired by
an investment trust and interests in the trust are sold to
investors. The source for payments to an investor is the money
received from principal and interest payments on the underlying
debt. An asset-backed security includes an "interest only" or a
"principal only" security that permits the investor to receive
only the interest payments received from the bonds, mortgages or
other assets that are the collateral for the asset-backed
security, or only the principal payments made on those collateral
assets. An asset-backed security also includes a security that
permits the investor to participate in either the capital
appreciation of an underlying security or in the interest or
dividend return from
such a security, such as the "Primes" and "Scores" issued by
Americus Trust. An asset-backed security does not include an
interest in a corporation, partnership, or an investment trust
described in the Comment to Section 402, whose assets consist
significantly or entirely of investment assets. Receipts from an
instrument that do not come within the scope of this section or
any other section of the Act would be allocated entirely to
principal under the rule in Section 103(a)(4), and the trustee
may then consider whether and to what extent to exercise the
power to adjust in Section 104, taking into account the return
from the portfolio as whole and other relevant factors.

 
SUBPART 5

 
ALLOCATION OF DISBURSEMENTS DURING

 
ADMINISTRATION OF TRUST

 
§7-761.__Disbursements from income

 
A trustee shall make the following disbursements from income
to the extent that they are not disbursements to which section 7-
721, subsection (b), paragraph (2) or (3) applies:

 
(a)__One-half of the regular compensation of the trustee and
of any person providing investment advisory or custodial services
to the trustee;

 
(b)__One-half of all expenses for accountings, judicial
proceedings or other matters that involve both the income and
remainder interests;

 
(c)__All of the other ordinary expenses incurred in connection
with the administration, management or preservation of trust
property and the distribution of income, including interest,
ordinary repairs, regularly recurring taxes assessed against
principal and expenses of a proceeding or other matter that
concerns primarily the income interest; and

 
(d)__Recurring premiums on insurance covering the loss of a
principal asset or the loss of income from or use of the asset.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 501 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Trustee fees. The regular compensation of a trustee or the
trustee's agent includes compensation based on a percentage of
either principal or income or both.

 
Insurance premiums. The reference in paragraph (4) to
"recurring" premiums is intended to distinguish premiums paid
annually for fire insurance from premiums on title insurance,
each of which covers the loss of a principal asset. Title
insurance premiums would be a principal disbursement under
Section 502(a)(5).

 
Regularly recurring taxes. The reference to "regularly
recurring taxes assessed against principal" includes all taxes
regularly imposed on real property and tangible and intangible
personal property.

 
§7-762.__Disbursements from principal

 
(a)__A trustee shall make the following disbursements from
principal:

 
(1)__The remaining 1/2 of the disbursements described in
section 7-761, subsections (a) and (b);

 
(2)__All of the trustee's compensation calculated on
principal as a fee for acceptance, distribution or
termination and disbursements made to prepare property for
sale;

 
(3)__Payments on the principal of a trust debt;

 
(4)__Expenses of a proceeding that concerns primarily
principal, including a proceeding to construe the trust or
to protect the trust or its property;

 
(5)__Premiums paid on a policy of insurance not described in
section 7-761, subsection (d) of which the trust is the
owner and beneficiary;

 
(6)__Estate, inheritance and other transfer taxes, including
penalties, apportioned to the trust; and

 
(7)__Disbursements related to environmental matters,
including reclamation, assessing environmental conditions,
remedying and removing environmental contamination,
monitoring remedial activities and the release of
substances, preventing future releases of substances,
collecting amounts from persons liable or potentially liable
for the costs of those activities, penalties imposed under
environmental laws or regulations and other payments made to
comply with those laws or regulations, statutory or common
law claims by 3rd parties and defending claims based on
environmental matters.

 
(b)__If a principal asset is encumbered with an obligation
that requires income from that asset to be paid directly to the
creditor, the trustee shall transfer from principal to income an
amount equal to the income paid to the creditor in reduction of
the principal balance of the obligation.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 502 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Environmental expenses. All environmental expenses are
payable from principal, subject to the power of the trustee to
transfer funds to principal from income under Section 504.
However, the Drafting Committee decided that it was not necessary
to broaden this provision to cover other expenditures made under
compulsion of governmental authority. See generally the
annotation at 43 A.L.R.4th 1012 (Duty as Between Life Tenant and
Remainderman with Respect to Cost of Improvements or Repairs Made
Under Compulsion of Governmental Authority).

 
Environmental expenses paid by a trust are to be paid from
principal under Section 502(a)(7) on the assumption that they
will usually be extraordinary in nature. Environmental expenses
might be paid from income if the trustee is carrying on a
business that uses or sells toxic substances, in which case
environmental cleanup costs would be a normal cost of doing
business and would be accounted for under Section 403. In
accounting under that Section, environmental costs will be a
factor in determining how much of the net receipts from the
business is trust income. Paying all other environmental
expenses from principal is consistent with this Act's approach
regarding receipts - when a receipt is not clearly a current
return on a principal asset, it should be added to principal
because over time both the income and remainder beneficiaries
benefit from this treatment. Here, allocating payments required

 
by environmental laws to principal imposes the detriment of those
payments over time on both the income and remainder
beneficiaries.

 
Under Sections 504(a) and 504(b)(5), a trustee who makes or
expects to make a principal disbursement for an environmental
expense described in Section 502(a)(7) is authorized to transfer
an appropriate amount from income to principal to reimburse
principal for disbursements made or to provide a reserve for
future principal disbursements.

 
The first part of Section 502(a)(7) is based upon the
definition of an "environmental remediation trust" in Treas. Reg.
§ 301.77014(e)(as amended in 1996). This is not because the Act
applies to an environmental remediation trust, but because the
definition is a useful and thoroughly vetted description of the
kinds of expenses that a trustee owning contaminated property
might incur. Expenses incurred to comply with environmental laws
include the cost of environmental consultants, administrative
proceedings and burdens of every kind imposed as the result of an
administrative or judicial proceeding, even though the burden is
not formally characterized as a penalty.

 
Title proceedings. Disbursements that are made to protect a
trust's property, referred to in Section 502(a)(4), include an
"action to assure title" that is mentioned in Section 13(c)(2) of
the 1962 Act.

 
Insurance premiums. Insurance premiums referred to in Section
502(a)(5) include title insurance premiums. They also include
premiums on life insurance policies owned by the trust, which
represent the trust's periodic investment in the insurance
policy. There is no provision in the 1962 Act for life insurance
premiums.

 
Taxes. Generation-skipping transfer taxes are payable from
principal under subsection (a)(6).

 
§7-763.__Transfers from income to principal for depreciation

 
(a)__In this section, "depreciation" means a reduction in
value due to wear, tear, decay, corrosion or gradual obsolescence
of a fixed asset having a useful life of more than one year.

 
(b)__A trustee may transfer to principal a reasonable amount
of the net cash receipts from a principal asset that is subject
to depreciation, but may not transfer any amount for
depreciation:

 
(1)__Of that portion of real property used or available for use
by a beneficiary as a residence or of tangible personal

 
property held or made available for the personal use or
enjoyment of a beneficiary;

 
(2)__During the administration of a decedent's estate; or

 
(3)__Under this section if the trustee is accounting under
section 7-743 for the business or activity in which the
asset is used.

 
(c)__An amount transferred to principal need not be held as a
separate fund.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 503 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Acts. The 1931 Act has no provision for depreciation.
Section 13(a)(2) of the 1962 Act provides that a charge shall be
made against income for "... a reasonable allowance for
depreciation on property subject to depreciation under generally
accepted accounting principles ... ." That provision has been
resisted by many trustees, who do not provide for any
depreciation for a variety of reasons. One reason relied upon is
that a charge for depreciation is not needed to protect the
remainder beneficiaries if the value of the land is increasing;
another is that generally accepted accounting principles may not
require depreciation to be taken if the property is not part of a
business. The Drafting Committee concluded that the decision to
provide for depreciation should be discretionary with the
trustee. The power to transfer funds from income to principal
that is granted by this section is a discretionary power of
administration referred to in Section 103(b), and in exercising
the power a trustee must comply with Section 103(b).

 
One purpose served by transferring cash from income to
principal for depreciation is to provide funds to pay the
principal of an indebtedness secured by the depreciable property.
Section 504(b)(4) permits the trustee to transfer additional cash
from income to principal for this purpose to the extent that the
amount transferred from income to principal for depreciation is
less than the amount of the principal payments.

 
§7-764.__Transfers from income to reimburse principal

 
(a)__If a trustee makes or expects to make a principal
disbursement described in this section, the trustee may transfer
an appropriate amount from income to principal in one or more

 
accounting periods to reimburse principal or to provide a reserve
for future principal disbursements.

 
(b)__Principal disbursements to which subsection (a) applies
include the following, but only to the extent that the trustee
has not been and does not expect to be reimbursed by a 3rd party:

 
(1)__An amount chargeable to income but paid from principal
because it is unusually large, including extraordinary
repairs;

 
(2)__A capital improvement to a principal asset, whether in
the form of changes to an existing asset or the construction
of a new asset, including special assessments;

 
(3)__Disbursements made to prepare property for rental,
including tenant allowances, leasehold improvements and
broker's commissions;

 
(4)__Periodic payments on an obligation secured by a
principal asset to the extent that the amount transferred
from income to principal for depreciation is less than the
periodic payments; and

 
(5)__Disbursements described in section 7-762, subsection
(a), paragraph (7).

 
(c)__If the asset whose ownership gives rise to the
disbursements becomes subject to a successive income interest
after an income interest ends, a trustee may continue to transfer
amounts from income to principal as provided in subsection (a).

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 504 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Prior Acts. The sources of Section 504 are Section 13(b) of
the 1962 Act, which permits a trustee to "regularize
distributions," if charges against income are unusually large, by
using "reserves or other reasonable means" to withhold sums from
income distributions; Section 13(c)(3) of the 1962 Act, which
authorizes a trustee to establish an allowance for depreciation
out of income if principal is used for extraordinary repairs,
capital improvements and special assessments; and Section 12(3)
of the 1931 Act, which permits the trustee to spread income
expenses of unusual amount "throughout a series of years."
Section 504 contains a more detailed enumeration of the

 
circumstances in which this authority may be used, and includes
in subsection (b)(4) the express authority to use income to make
principal payments on a mortgage if the depreciation charge
against income is less than the principal payments on the
mortgage.

 
§7-765.__Income taxes

 
(a)__A tax required to be paid by a trustee based on receipts
allocated to income must be paid from income.

 
(b)__A tax required to be paid by a trustee based on receipts
allocated to principal must be paid from principal, even if the
tax is called an income tax by the taxing authority.

 
(c)__A tax required to be paid by a trustee on the trust's
share of an entity's taxable income must be paid proportionately:

 
(1)__From income to the extent that receipts from the entity
are allocated to income; and

 
(2)__From principal to the extent that:

 
(i)__Receipts from the entity are allocated to
principal; and

 
(ii)__The trust's share of the entity's taxable income
exceeds the total receipts described in paragraph (1)
and subparagraph (i).

 
(d)__For purposes of this section, receipts allocated to
principal or income must be reduced by the amount distributed to
a beneficiary from principal or income for which the trust
receives a deduction in calculating the tax.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 505 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Electing Small Business Trusts. An Electing Small Business
Trust (ESBT) is a creature created by Congress in the Small
Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (P.L. 104188). For years
beginning after 1996, an ESBT may qualify as an S corporation
stockholder even if the trustee does not distribute all of the
trust's income annually to its beneficiaries. The portion of an
ESBT that consists of the S corporation stock is treated as a
separate trust for tax purposes (but not for trust accounting
purposes), and the S corporation income is taxed directly to that

 
portion of the trust even if some or all of that income is
distributed to the beneficiaries.

 
A trust normally receives a deduction for distributions it
makes to its beneficiaries. Subsection (d) takes into account
the possibility that an ESBT may not receive a deduction for
trust accounting income that is distributed to the beneficiaries.
Only limited guidance has been issued by the Internal Revenue
Service, and it is too early to anticipate all of the technical
questions that may arise, but the powers granted to a trustee in
Sections 506 and 104 to make adjustments are probably sufficient
to enable a trustee to correct inequities that may arise because
of technical problems.

 
§7-766.__Adjustments between principal and income because of
taxes

 
(a)__A fiduciary may make adjustments between principal and
income to offset the shifting of economic interests or tax
benefits between income beneficiaries and remainder beneficiaries
that arise from:

 
(1)__Elections and decisions, other than those described in
subsection (b), that the fiduciary makes from time to time
regarding tax matters;

 
(2)__An income tax or any other tax that is imposed upon the
fiduciary or a beneficiary as a result of a transaction
involving or a distribution from the estate or trust; or

 
(3)__The ownership by an estate or trust of an interest in
an entity whose taxable income, whether or not distributed,
is includable in the taxable income of the estate, trust or
a beneficiary.

 
(b)__If the amount of an estate tax marital deduction or
charitable contribution deduction is reduced because a fiduciary
deducts an amount paid from principal for income tax purposes
instead of deducting it for estate tax purposes, and as a result
estate taxes paid from principal are increased and income taxes
paid by an estate, trust or beneficiary are decreased, each
estate, trust or beneficiary that benefits from the decrease in
income tax shall reimburse the principal from which the increase
in estate tax is paid.__The total reimbursement must equal the
increase in the estate tax to the extent that the principal used
to pay the increase would have qualified for a marital deduction
or charitable contribution deduction but for the payment.__The
proportionate share of the reimbursement for each estate, trust
or beneficiary whose income taxes are reduced must be the same as
its proportionate share of the total decrease in income tax.__An
estate or trust shall reimburse principal from income.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 506 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
Discretionary adjustments. Section 506(a) permits the
fiduciary to make adjustments between income and principal
because of tax law provisions. It would permit discretionary
adjustments in situations like these: (1) A fiduciary elects to
deduct administration expenses that are paid from principal on an
income tax return instead of on the estate tax return; (2) a
distribution of a principal asset to a trust or other beneficiary
causes the taxable income of an estate or trust to be carried out
to the distributee and relieves the persons who receive the
income of any obligation to pay income tax on the income; or (3)
a trustee
realizes a capital gain on the sale of a principal asset and pays
a large state income tax on the gain, but under applicable
federal income tax rules the trustee may not deduct the state
income tax payment from the capital gain in calculating the
trust's federal capital gain tax, and the income beneficiary
receives the benefit of the deduction for state income tax paid
on the capital gain. See generally Joel C. Dobris, Limits on the
Doctrine of Equitable Adjustment in Sophisticated Postmortem Tax
Planning, 66 Iowa L. Rev. 273 (1981).

 
Section 506(a)(3) applies to a qualified Subchapter S trust
(QSST) whose income beneficiary is required to include a pro rata
share of the S corporation's taxable income in his return. If
the QSST does not receive a cash distribution from the
corporation that is large enough to cover the income
beneficiary's tax liability, the trustee may distribute
additional cash from principal to the income beneficiary. In
this case the retention of cash by the corporation benefits the
trust principal. This situation could occur if the corporation's
taxable income includes capital gain from the sale of a business
asset and the sale proceeds are reinvested in the business
instead of being distributed to shareholders.

 
Mandatory adjustment. Subsection (b) provides for a mandatory
adjustment from income to principal to the extent needed to
preserve an estate tax marital deduction or charitable
contributions deduction. It is derived from New York's EPTL §
111.2(A), which requires principal to be reimbursed by those who
benefit when a fiduciary elects to deduct administration expenses
on an income tax return instead of the estate tax return. Unlike
the New York provision, subsection (b) limits a mandatory
reimbursement to cases in which a marital deduction or a
charitable contributions deduction is reduced by the payment of

 
additional estate taxes because of the fiduciary's income tax
election. It is intended to preserve the result reached in
Estate of Britenstool v. Commissioner, 46 T.C. 711 (1966), in
which the Tax Court held that a reimbursement required by the
predecessor of EPTL § 111.2(A) resulted in the estate receiving
the same charitable contributions deduction it would have
received if the administration expenses had been deducted for
estate tax purposes instead of for income tax purposes. Because
a fiduciary will elect to deduct administration expenses for
income tax purposes only when the income tax reduction exceeds
the estate tax reduction, the effect of this adjustment is that
the principal is placed in the same position it would have
occupied if the fiduciary had deducted the expenses for estate
tax purposes, but the income beneficiaries receive an additional
benefit. For example, if the income tax benefit from the
deduction is $30,000 and the estate tax benefit would have been
$20,000, principal will be reimbursed $20,000 and the net benefit
to the income beneficiaries will be $10,000.

 
Irrevocable grantor trusts. Under Sections 671679 of the
Internal Revenue Code (the "grantor trust" provisions), a person
who creates an irrevocable trust for the benefit of another
person may be subject to tax on the trust's income or capital
gains, or both, even though the settlor is not entitled to
receive any income or principal from the trust. Because this is
now a well-known tax result, many trusts have been created to
produce this result, but there are also trusts that are
unintentionally subject to this rule. The Act does not require
or authorize a trustee to distribute funds from the trust to the
settlor in these cases because it is difficult to establish a
rule that applies only to trusts where this tax result is
unintended and does not apply to trusts where the tax result is
intended. Settlors who intend this tax result rarely state it as
an objective in the terms of the trust, but instead rely on the
operation of the tax law to produce the desired result. As a
result it may not be possible to determine from the terms of the
trust if the result was intentional or unintentional. If the
drafter of such a trust wants the trustee to have the authority
to distribute principal or income to the settlor to reimburse the
settlor for taxes paid on the trust's income or capital gains,
such a provision should be placed in the terms of the trust. In
some situations the Internal Revenue Service may require that
such a provision be placed in the terms of the trust as a
condition to issuing a private letter ruling.

 
SUBPART 6

 
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

 
§7-771.__Uniformity of application and construction

 
In applying and construing the Uniform Principal and Income
Act, consideration must be given to the need to promote
uniformity of the law with respect to its subject matter among
states that enact it.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 601 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
§7-772.__Application of Part to existing trusts and estates

 
This Part applies to every trust or decedent's estate existing
on January 1, 2002 except as otherwise expressly provided in the
will or terms of the trust or in this Part.

 
Uniform Comment

 
(This is Section 605 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
(1997).)

 
§7-773.__Effective date

 
This Part takes effect January 1, 2002.

 
SUMMARY

 
This bill enacts the Uniform Principal and Income Act of 1997,
adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform
State Laws in 1997. It provides rules for handling trust
principal, income, receipts and disbursements.


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