2023 Wyoming Statutes › Title 4 - Trusts › Chapter 10 - Uniform Trust Code › Article 8 - Duties and Powers of Trustee › Section 4-10-816 - Specific Powers of Trustee.

4-10-816. Specific powers of trustee.
(a) Without limiting the authority conferred by W.S. 4-10-815, a trustee may:
(i) Collect trust property and accept or reject additions to the trust property from a settlor or any other person;
(ii) Acquire or sell property, for cash or on credit, at public or private sale;
(iii) Exchange, partition or otherwise change the character of trust property;
(iv) Deposit trust money in an account in a regulated financial services institution;
(v) Borrow money, with or without security, and mortgage or pledge trust property for a period within or extending beyond the duration of the trust;
(vi) With respect to an interest in a proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, corporation or other form of business or enterprise, continue the business or other enterprise and take any action that may be taken by shareholders, partners, members or property owners, including merging, dissolving or otherwise changing the form of business organization or contributing additional capital;
(vii) With respect to stocks or other securities, exercise the rights of an absolute owner, including the right to:
(A) Vote, or give proxies to vote, with or without power of substitution, or enter into or continue a voting trust agreement;
(B) Hold a security in the name of a nominee or in other form without disclosure of the trust so that title may pass by delivery;
(C) Pay calls, assessments and other sums chargeable or accruing against the securities, and sell or exercise stock subscription or conversion rights;
(D) Exercise stock options and other rights; and
(E) Deposit the securities with a depositary or other regulated financial services institution.
(viii) With respect to an interest in real property, construct, or make ordinary or extraordinary repairs to, alterations to, or improvements in, buildings or other structures, demolish improvements, raze existing or erect new party walls or buildings, subdivide or develop land, dedicate land to public use or grant public or private easements and make or vacate plats and adjust boundaries;
(ix) Enter into a lease for any purpose as lessor or lessee, including a lease or other arrangement for exploration and removal of natural resources, with or without the option to purchase or renew, for a period within or extending beyond the duration of the trust;
(x) Grant an option involving a sale, lease or other disposition of trust property or acquire an option for the acquisition of property, including an option exercisable beyond the duration of the trust, and exercise an option so acquired;
(xi) Insure the property of the trust against damage or loss and insure the trustee, the trustee's agents and beneficiaries against liability arising from the administration of the trust;
(xii) Abandon or decline to administer property of no value or of insufficient value to justify its collection or continued administration;
(xiii) With respect to possible liability for violation of environmental law:
(A) Inspect or investigate property the trustee holds or has been asked to hold, or property owned or operated by an organization in which the trustee holds or has been asked to hold an interest, for the purpose of determining the application of environmental law with respect to the property;
(B) Take action to prevent, abate or otherwise remedy any actual or potential violation of any environmental law affecting property held directly or indirectly by the trustee, whether taken before or after the assertion of a claim or the initiation of governmental enforcement;
(C) Decline to accept property into trust or disclaim any power with respect to property that is or may be burdened with liability for violation of environmental law;
(D) Compromise claims against the trust which may be asserted for an alleged violation of environmental law; and
(E) Pay the expense of any inspection, review, abatement or remedial action to comply with environmental law.
(xiv) Pay or contest any claim, settle a claim by or against the trust and release, in whole or in part, a claim belonging to the trust;
(xv) Pay taxes, assessments, compensation of the trustee and of employees and agents of the trust and other expenses incurred in the administration of the trust;
(xvi) Exercise elections with respect to federal, state and local taxes;
(xvii) Select a mode of payment under any employee benefit or retirement plan, annuity or life insurance payable to the trustee, exercise rights thereunder, including exercise of the right to indemnification for expenses and against liabilities, and take appropriate action to collect the proceeds;
(xviii) Make loans out of trust property, including loans to a beneficiary on terms and conditions the trustee considers to be fair and reasonable under the circumstances, and the trustee has a lien on future distributions for repayment of those loans;
(xix) Pledge trust property to guarantee loans made by others to the beneficiary;
(xx) Appoint a trustee to act in another jurisdiction with respect to trust property located in the other jurisdiction, confer upon the appointed trustee all of the powers and duties of the appointing trustee, require that the appointed trustee furnish security and remove any trustee so appointed;
(xxi) Pay an amount distributable to a beneficiary who is under a legal disability or who the trustee reasonably believes is incapacitated, by paying it directly to the beneficiary or applying it for the beneficiary's benefit, or by:
(A) Paying it to the beneficiary's conservator or, if the beneficiary does not have a conservator, the beneficiary's guardian;
(B) Paying it to the beneficiary's custodian under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act or custodial trustee under the Uniform Custodial Trust Act and, for that purpose, creating a custodianship or custodial trust;
(C) If the trustee does not know of a conservator, guardian, custodian or custodial trustee, paying it to the person's agent under a power of attorney or, if none, to an adult relative or other person having legal or physical care or custody of the beneficiary, to be expended on the beneficiary's behalf;
(D) Managing it as a separate fund on the beneficiary's behalf, subject to the beneficiary's continuing right to withdraw the distribution; and
(E) Creating or funding a plan under Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, in effect on July 1, 2003, for the beneficiary's benefit.
(xxii) On distribution of trust property or the division or termination of a trust, make distributions in divided or undivided interests, allocate particular assets in proportionate or disproportionate shares, value the trust property for those purposes and adjust for resulting differences in valuation;
(xxiii) Resolve a dispute concerning the interpretation of the trust or its administration by mediation, arbitration, or other procedure for alternative dispute resolution;
(xxiv) Prosecute or defend an action, claim or judicial proceeding in any jurisdiction to protect trust property and the trustee in the performance of the trustee's duties;
(xxv) Sign and deliver contracts and other instruments that are useful to achieve or facilitate the exercise of the trustee's powers;
(xxvi) Purchase and pay from trust principal the premiums on life insurance;
(xxvii) On termination of the trust, exercise the powers appropriate to wind up the administration of the trust and distribute the trust property to the persons entitled to it; and
(xxviii) Distribute all or any portion of trust income or principal in further trust for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries pursuant to authority granted in the trust instrument to make discretionary or mandatory distributions of trust income or principal to the trust beneficiaries, whether or not the discretionary or mandatory distributions are pursuant to an ascertainable standard;
(xxix) Make a distribution of trust income to or for the benefit of a beneficiary or pay trust expenses from a trust with two (2) or more subtrusts or shares for the beneficiary from any subtrust or share requiring or permitting income distributions to the beneficiary;
(xxx) Separate a trust for the benefit of more than one (1) beneficiary into separate trusts or shares for each beneficiary, unless the trust instrument requires the trust property to be held in one (1) trust for the beneficiaries;
(xxxi) Exercise elections with respect to federal, state and local taxes; and
(xxxii) Decide each trust taxable year whether principal distributions made from a trust to a beneficiary include net realized capital gains and losses in section 643(a) of the Internal Revenue Code distributable net income.
(b) The power provided in paragraph (a)(xxviii) of this section shall not be exercised in any manner that would prevent qualification for a federal estate or gift tax marital deduction, federal estate or gift tax charitable deduction, or other federal income, estate, gift or generation-skipping transfer tax benefit claimed for the trust from which the distribution in further trust is made. If the trustee making a distribution in further trust under paragraph (a)(xxviii) of this section is a beneficiary of the trust from which the distribution in further trust is made, the distribution in further trust may not change the trustee's interest as a beneficiary in the trust. A trustee shall not be liable for exercising the power permitted under paragraph (a)(xxviii) of this section if the power is exercised in good faith.
(c) This section may be cited as the Uniform Trustee Powers Act.