Assigning the Power to Control the Trust Property by Deborah S. Layton
This is the part of your trust document that gives you 100 percent control of the trust property. You as the creator of the trust document are keeping the power to change or revoke the trust without anyone's approval.
ARTICLE II RESERVATIONS
2.1 Amendment and Revocation. I may, during my lifetime and without the consent of anyone, revoke this Agreement in whole or in part (whereupon the trust property or the part affected by such revocation shall be distributed in accordance with my instructions) or amend it from time to time in any respect.
ARTICLE III LIFETIME MANAGEMENT
3.1 Income. The Trustee shall pay to me the net income, if any, in such installments and amounts as I direct. In the absence of such direction, net income not distributed shall be accumulated and become part of the principal.
3.2 Invasion of Principal. The Trustee shall have the discretionary power to pay me such principal as will, when combined with my other income, support and maintain me so that I might, as near as possible with due regard to my total estate and my future financial requirements for myself and my dependents known to the Trustee, continue to enjoy the standard of living to which I am accustomed. This power shall be liberally construed without regard to remaindermen's interests and shall also include amounts for the care, support, education, medical and dental care, and general welfare and well-being of persons dependent on me, premiums on life insurance on my life whether or not such policies are assigned to or payable to the Trustee, and all sums necessary to preserve and protect my property.
Article III directs the trustee (who is probably you) to pay you (the beneficiary while you are alive) all of the income and any principal you need or want. If you have named someone else as the initial trustee, you are instructing that trustee to distribute any income or principal you request. The trustee cannot say no.
ARTICLE IV CONSEQUENCES OF DEATH
4.1 Death. At my death this Agreement shall be irrevocable. The Trustee shall receive and hold as part of this Trust all then remaining principal and undistributed net income as well as any proceeds of any insurance on my life and all other property received by the Trustee at my death or at any time thereafter from any source. After my death the Trustee shall administer and distribute this Trust in accordance with the provisions of Article V.
Article IV makes the trust irrevocable when you die. The person or entity you name as your successor trustee will automatically become the new trustee, and Article V will now control what the successor trustee may do with the trust property.
