Surrogate Edward McCarty III
Trust income beneficiary, Marian Smithers Moore, sought a direction that the optional unitrust provisions of Estates Powers and Trusts Law §11-2.4 applied to the trust, retroactively to Jan. 1, 2013. The trust was created to benefit decedent's daughter, Moore. She filed a petition asking that the trust be converted to a unitrust noting that total distributions from the trust in 2008 were just over $200,000, but have decreased every year since. The court noted Moore was the sole income beneficiary during her lifetime, and the trust was designed specifically to benefit her with income. Thus, the unitrust conversion would provide greater annual income to Moore, which the court found she needed in light of her current healthcare expenses. Also, the court found the increase income after the conversion would not result in a quick depletion of the corpus thereby failing to provide Moore income for the duration of her life. Hence, the court exercised its discretion and directed that the unitrust statute applied to the trust. Further, as there were no objections, and the court had discretion in determining the effective date of a unitrust conversion, it granted Moore's request to apply same retroactively to Jan. 1, 2013.
