Opinion ID: 1855904
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: did herbert coe revoke the trust?

Text: Once a trustor establishes a trust, the trustor must obtain the approval of the beneficiaries to revoke the trust. This is because the property placed in trust no longer belongs to the trustor. SDCL 55-3-6 provides: A trust cannot be revoked by the trustor after its acceptance, actual or presumed, by the trustee and beneficiaries except by the consent of all the beneficiaries, unless the declaration of trust reserves a power of revocation to the trustor and in that case the power must be strictly pursued. Herbert Coe did not reserve a power of revocation to himself. The trust instrument expressly excludes this power in the general provisions: This instrument cannot be altered, amended, revoked or terminated.... In his attempts to revoke the trust, Herbert Coe did not obtain the approval of the beneficiaries. Herbert Coe instead filed a petition with the trial court in April 1985 to revoke the trust. Along with the petition, he filed an affidavit in which he stated that he was intoxicated at the time he signed the trust and did not know what he was signing. His wife, Vickie Coe, appeared in court on his behalf, seeking revocation of the trust. The trial court properly refused to consider the petition to revoke the trust unless Herbert Coe personally appeared and presented his reasons for terminating the trust. Herbert Coe also attempted to revoke the trust in a will he signed while in the hospital in February 1985. It is uniformly held that an attempt to revoke a trust by will is invalid. The power to revoke a trust must be exercised during the trustor's lifetime. Annot., Exercise by Will of Trustor's Reserved Power to Revoke or Modify Inter Vivos Trust, 81 A.L.R.3d 959 (1977). We hold that Herbert Coe's attempts to revoke the trust were ineffectual.