An Act To Correct the Maine Uniform Trust Code Concerning Certain Beneficiaries

Sec. 1. 18-B MRSA §110, sub-§1, ¶C,  as enacted by PL 2005, c. 184, §7, is amended to read:

SUMMARY

This bill is a recommendation of the Probate and Trust Law Advisory Commission pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 18-A, section 1-803, subsection 2.

The bill addresses the rights of a charitable organization to enforce a trust of which it is a beneficiary. The Maine Revised Statutes, Title 18-B, section 110 provides that a charitable organization is considered a qualified beneficiary of the trust if it would be considered a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal in 3 different situations. One situation is whether the charitable organization would be a distributee or permissible distributee on the date the status is being determined, without providing additional criteria. That provision of current law is inconsistent with the Uniform Trust Code approved by the Uniform Law Commissioners. The Uniform Trust Code provides that a charitable organization is a qualified beneficiary if it would be a distributee or permissible distributee of the trust if the trust were to terminate on that date. This bill amends the current law to be consistent with the Uniform Trust Code, making it clear that the determination is based on whether the charitable organization would be a distributee or permissible distributee if the trust were to terminate on the date that the beneficiary status determination is being made.