30-3828. (UTC 402) Requirements for creation.

312 words·~1 min read·/ne/chapter-30/30-3828

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

(UTC 402)

(a)A trust is created only if:

(1)the settlor has capacity to create a trust and meets one of the following requirements:

(A)the settlor is eighteen years of age or older; or

(B)the settlor is not a minor;

(2)the settlor indicates an intention to create the trust;

(3)the trust has a definite beneficiary or is:

(A)a charitable trust;

(B)a trust for the care of an animal, as provided in section 30-3834 ; or

(C)a trust for a noncharitable purpose, as provided in section 30-3835 ;

(4)the trustee has duties to perform; and

(5)the same person is not the sole trustee and sole beneficiary.

(b)A beneficiary is definite if the beneficiary can be ascertained now or in the future, subject to any applicable rule against perpetuities.

(c)A power in a trustee to select a beneficiary from an indefinite class is valid. If the power is not exercised within a reasonable time, the power fails and the property subject to the power passes to the persons who would have taken the property had the power not been conferred.

A beneficiary must be "definite." A class of beneficiaries is not indefinite merely because it consists of a changing or shifting group, the number of whose members may increase or decrease.- Typical examples of definite classes for trust beneficiaries are "children" or "grandchildren," the "issue" or "descendants," or the "heirs" or "next of kin" of a designated person.- In re William R. Zutavern Revocable Trust, 309 Neb. 542, 961 N.W.2d 807 (2021).

The provision in subsection

(b)of this section that a "beneficiary is definite if the beneficiary can be ascertained now or in the future" did not change the common-law rule that the beneficiary must be ascertainable from the trust instrument. Newman v. Liebig, 282 Neb. 609, 810 N.W.2d 408 (2011).