Opinion ID: 2742090
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Trust and Pour-Over Will

Text: On October 24, 1996, Dr. Conklin executed (in the following order): (1) an agreement between himself as “Trustor” and himself as “Trustee” creating the Trust (the “1996 Agreement”) and (2) a will giving his net probate estate to the Trust (the “Pour-Over Will”). The will emphasizes that the Trust is an existing inter vivos trust and is not to be construed as a testamentary trust. See § 456.021. 1 The 1996 Trust Agreement named Dr. Conklin as the sole trustee and designated the Children to serve as co-trustees upon his death. It provides that Dr. Conklin would receive all interest – and such principal as he may direct – from the Trust property during his lifetime and that he could make additional contributions (or withdrawals) of property to the Trust by “written direction delivered to my Trustee.” Finally, Dr. Conklin expressly reserved the right in the 1996 Agreement to “amend, modify, alter, revoke or terminate my trust … at any time in whole or in part.” The terms of the Trust are simple and straightforward. The beneficiaries are a class consisting of all Dr. Conklin’s natural and/or adopted children at the time of his death. The 1996 Agreement and the Pour-Over Will recite that the only members of this class are the Children, but the beneficiary class remained open in the event additional children were born to or adopted by Dr. Conklin before his death. Upon Dr. Conklin’s death, the Trust property was to be divided into shares equaling the number of beneficiaries (including those who pre-deceased him). Shares belonging to pre-deceased children were to be distributed immediately, free of the Trust, to (or, if a minor, for the benefit of) the living descendants of those beneficiaries. Those beneficiaries who survived Dr. Conklin, on the other hand, were not to receive their shares outright. Instead, they would receive only the interest from their share plus whatever principal distributions the trustees in their discretion deemed necessary for that 1 Unless otherwise stated, all statutory references are to the RSMo Supp. 2013. 3 beneficiary’s “health, maintenance, support and education.” When each beneficiary died, that child’s share was to be distributed, free of the Trust, to (or, if a minor, for the benefit of) that beneficiary’s living descendants. In the 1996 Agreement, Dr. Conklin purported to “assign, convey, transfer and deliver” to the trustee all of the real and personal property that he owned at that time. The agreement makes no effort to identify any of this property specifically, however, and there was no evidence at trial establishing what property was transferred to the Trust, either upon its creation or at any time thereafter (including by operation of the Pour-Over Will). 2 Even though Dr. Conklin began living with the future Mrs. Conklin and the Stepchildren in 1990, neither the 1996 Agreement nor the Pour-Over Will makes any mention of them. The Stepchildren, of course, would have been entitled to distributions of interest (and perhaps principal) from the Trust under the terms of the 1996 Agreement 2 Attached to the 1996 Agreement, Dr. Conklin executed an “Assignment of Tangible Personal Property” purporting to transfer to the trustee all of Dr. Conklin’s (unspecified) tangible personal property. Even assuming this assignment was effective, there was no evidence at trial showing what tangible personal property Dr. Conklin owned in 1996. In addition, the 1996 Agreement did not convey any of Dr. Conklin’s real property to the trustee because it does not describe any item of property with sufficient particularity to serve as a deed. Nor was there any evidence at trial showing that Dr. Conklin separately conveyed particular pieces of real property to himself as trustee, either upon the Trust’s creation or thereafter. Finally, there was no evidence showing whether Dr. Conklin removed any property (real or personal) from the Trust, either by way of partial revocation of the Trust or by conveyance from himself as trustee to himself in his individual capacity. At trial, the Children asked the court (without objection) to take judicial notice of the record from the probate proceedings concerning Dr. Conklin’s estate (including, but not limited to, an unsuccessful discovery of assets action against Mrs. Conklin filed by the Children as co-administrators of their father’s probate estate). The Stepchildren failed to include these records in their Record on Appeal, however. As a result, this Court does not have the benefit of whatever light those records shed on the question of which assets are subject to the 4 if Dr. Conklin had adopted them, and their living descendants would have been entitled to receive (free of the Trust) each Stepchild’s share upon that Stepchild’s death. But Dr. Conklin did not adopt the Stepchildren, either before he married their mother in 2000 or at any time prior to his death in 2009. Accordingly, the Stepchildren concede they are not beneficiaries of the Trust under the terms of the 1996 Agreement.