This is from John Hancock’s monthly newsletter, and we thought it was interesting. Click on the link to pull up the whole newsletter.
Although significant Massachusetts case law exists that would exclude XW’s interest beyond her
withdrawal right, the Court determined that XW’s entire interest in her subtrust under Trust was includable. The
Court founded this determination on the provision of Trust that XW was the sole current beneficiary of that subtrust
(although not the only beneficiary) and thus distributions for her benefit could not be diminished by the rights of
other current beneficiaries. The Court accomplished this in part by citing case law that excluded an interest due to
an open beneficiary class rather than the absolute discretion of a trustee.
