Restocking the Trust Toolkit: Update on Pennsylvania Law

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Restocking the Trust Toolkit: Update on Pennsylvania Law

Program Originally Presented Tuesday, March 11, 2025

This timely update on Pennsylvania statutory law will emphasize two features of Act No. 64 that took effect October 2024. One is useful in designing trusts, and the other in ending them.

The availability of a trustee with suitable skills, experience, good judgment has been tough to find. The new Pennsylvania Directed Trust Act allows the appointment of non-trustee “trust directors” who will add specific expertise to a trust relationship and provide the opportunity to reflect changes in family and tax laws in the terms of an irrevocable trust.  The most common examples are the management of a trust’s marketable securities, real estate and business interests. The Pennsylvania Directed Trust Act provides rules comparable to Delaware’s to define this relationship.

Offering an alternative to non-judicial settlement agreements for terminating trusts and for cutting off liability while a trust persists, new § 7785.1 of the PEF Code, part of the Uniform Trust Act, will be particularly helpful where not all interested parties are likely to sign an agreement, but their concerns do not rise to the level of filing objections. During this CLE program panelists explore the advantages and pitfalls of this new approach and how to proceed under it, as well as compare the results with the alternative of a non-judicial settlement agreement.

Panelist will also provide updates on two other legislative initiatives – trust decanting and recognition of “electronic” wills.

Attend this CLE program to hear the latest updates from Act No. 64 affecting the design and termination of trusts.

Panelists:
C. Thomas Work, Esq.
Parnter, Stevens & Lee, P.C.

Rebecca L. Hagan, Esq.
Managing Senior Counsel
PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Alison T. Smith, Esq.
Of Counsel, McNees Wallace & Nurick, LLC

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