Delegation of Trusts

Key point. The decisions of trustees regarding the distribution of trust income or principal ordinarily will be upheld by the courts, especially where the trust confers upon them the sole discretion to make such decisions and they act in good faith.

* A California court ruled that a trust that was created by a church member to benefit elderly members of the church did not act improperly in rejecting a request by the church to distribute $300,000. A church member (Ruth) created a trust that directed the trustees to pay her church so much of the income and principal "as is necessary for the benefit of senior citizens, whether to improve the church for their comfort, or to assist programs started through the church for the benefit of senior citizens, or for such other needs of the church as the trustees shall, in their sole discretion, determine. At the time of Ruth's death, the trust was valued ...