El texto completo de esta guía está en inglés; el resumen anterior está en su idioma. Los resúmenes de las leyes y el inglés siguen siendo la fuente de referencia.
Revisado contra los Estatutos de Nueva York el 2026-10-06. Información general, no asesoría legal; el texto oficial prevalece.
EPTL Article 7, Part 1: Lifetime trusts: creation, funding, revocation
- EPTL 7-1.16 ↗ Revocation of lifetime trust by will
- A lifetime trust is irrevocable unless it expressly provides that it is revocable; a revocable one can also be revoked or amended by an express direction in the creator's will that specifically refers to it.
- EPTL 7-1.17 ↗ Execution, amendment and revocation of lifetime trusts
- A lifetime trust is in writing, executed and acknowledged by its creator and, unless the creator is sole trustee, by at least one trustee — or executed before two witnesses; an authorized amendment or revocation is executed the same way unless the instrument says otherwise.
- EPTL 7-1.18 ↗ Funding of lifetime trust
- A lifetime trust is valid only as to assets actually transferred to it; a recital in the instrument transfers nothing, and where the creator is sole trustee, registrable assets are recorded or registered in the trust's or trustee's name.
- EPTL 7-1.9 ↗ Revocation of trusts
- The creator may revoke or amend a trust with the written, acknowledged consent of all persons beneficially interested.
- EPTL 7-1.5 ↗ When trust interest inalienable; exception
- An income beneficiary may not transfer the right to receive income unless the instrument gives that power, with an exception for income above $10,000 a year to the relatives the section names.
- EPTL 7-1.6 ↗ Application of principal to income beneficiary
- A court may, unless the instrument forbids it, make an allowance from principal for an income beneficiary's support or education where the creator's original purpose cannot otherwise be carried out.
- EPTL 7-1.10 ↗ Provision by non-domiciliary creator as to law to govern trust
- A non-domiciliary creator's choice of New York law governs the trust's New York property and personal property held by a New York trustee.
- EPTL 7-1.19 ↗ Application for termination of uneconomical trust
- The Surrogate's Court may terminate a trust whose administration has become uneconomical, if the terms do not prohibit it and termination would not defeat the trust's purpose.
EPTL Article 7, Parts 2–3: Trustees, successors and creditors
- EPTL 7-2.1 ↗ Extent of trustee's estate
- An express trust vests the legal estate in the trustee, subject only to the execution of the trust; the beneficiary may enforce it.
- EPTL 7-2.3 ↗ Trust estate not to descend on death of trustee; appointment, duties and rights of successor trustee
- On a sole surviving trustee's death the trust property does not pass to the trustee's estate; absent a contrary direction, the court appoints a successor.
- EPTL 7-2.4 ↗ Act of trustee in contravention of trust
- Where the trust is expressed in the instrument, a trustee's act in contravention of it, unless authorized by law, is void.
- EPTL 7-2.6 ↗ Resignation, suspension or removal of trustee
- The Supreme Court may accept a trustee's resignation, suspend or remove a trustee who has violated or threatens to violate the trust, and appoint a successor.
- EPTL 7-3.1 ↗ Disposition in trust for creator void as against creditors
- A disposition in trust for the creator's own use is void against the creator's creditors; qualified retirement plans and accounts are treated as spendthrift trusts.
- EPTL 7-3.4 ↗ Excess income from trust property subject to creditors' claims
- Trust income beyond what the beneficiary's education and support require is subject to the beneficiary's creditors.
EPTL Article 10: Powers: appointment in further trust and multiple fiduciaries
- EPTL 10-6.6 ↗ Exercise of a power of appointment; effect when more extensive or less extensive than authorized; trustee's authority to invade principal in trust
- A trustee with authority to invade principal may appoint it to a new trust, within the section's limits, by an acknowledged instrument served on the persons it names; it takes effect 30 days after service unless they consent to an earlier date.
- EPTL 10-10.1 ↗ Power to distribute principal or allocate income; restriction on exercise
- A trustee who is also a beneficiary cannot make discretionary distributions to themselves beyond health, education, maintenance or support unless the instrument expressly provides otherwise; the other trustees act instead.
- EPTL 10-10.7 ↗ Exercise of powers by multiple fiduciaries; joint and several powers
- Two fiduciaries act jointly and three or more by majority, unless the instrument says otherwise; a prompt written dissent shields a dissenter who joins the majority.
EPTL Articles 11 and 11-A: Fiduciaries: powers, duties, investment, principal and income
- EPTL 11-1.1 ↗ Fiduciaries' powers
- The powers every fiduciary holds unless the instrument or an order limits them: to invest, insure, take possession of and manage property, sell, lease and mortgage it, settle claims, distribute in cash or in kind, and pay reasonable administration expenses.
- EPTL 11-1.6 ↗ Property held as fiduciary to be kept separate
- A fiduciary keeps property received as fiduciary separate from individual property and transacts in the fiduciary's name as fiduciary.
- EPTL 11-1.7 ↗ Limitations on powers and immunities of executors and testamentary trustees
- A grant of exoneration for failing to exercise reasonable care, or of power to fix asset values conclusively, is void; for inter vivos trustees, as to wills and trusts executed on or after the 2018 amendment's effective date.
- EPTL 11-2.3 ↗ Prudent investor act
- A trustee invests and manages the portfolio as a prudent investor would — a standard of conduct, not outcome — diversifying unless it reasonably decides not to and deciding within a reasonable time whether to keep initial assets.
- EPTL 11-A-1.3 ↗ Fiduciary duties; general principles
- In allocating between principal and income, a fiduciary follows the instrument, then the article, and exercises discretion impartially, based on what is fair and reasonable to all beneficiaries.
SCPA: The Surrogate's Court: jurisdiction, accounts, commissions
- SCPA 207 ↗ Lifetime trusts; jurisdiction and venue
- The Surrogate's Court has jurisdiction over a lifetime trust with assets in New York, a New York grantor at the proceeding's start, or a New York trustee, with venue in the county of the assets, that domicile or that residence.
- SCPA 315 ↗ Joinder and representation of persons interested in estates
- When a party with the same interest represents others in a proceeding, and when an instrument settling an account, signed by all who would be served, binds those they represent.
- SCPA 1502 ↗ Appointment of trustee
- The court appoints a trustee only when none is able to act, never against the instrument or in place of a qualified named successor.
- SCPA 2102 ↗ Proceedings for relief against a fiduciary
- A proceeding may require a fiduciary to supply information after a written request has failed, and to pay or deliver what is due.
- SCPA 2205 ↗ Compulsory account and related relief on a court's own initiative or on petition; who may petition
- The court may order a fiduciary to account, on its own initiative or on a person interested's petition.
- SCPA 2208 ↗ Voluntary account; who may petition
- A trustee may petition for judicial settlement of an account when a trust is ready to be executed or the account has not been settled within a year.
- SCPA 2309 ↗ Commissions of trustees, of donees of powers during minority and of donees of powers in trust under wills of persons dying, or lifetime trusts established, after August 31, 1956
- An individual trustee's commissions: 1% of principal paid out, and annual commissions at $10.50, $4.50 and $3.00 per $1,000 by tier, kept only with the annual statements the section describes.
Información general sobre la ley de Nueva York, no asesoramiento legal.