Court Opinion

ID: 9688440
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:47:26.701678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:38.844466
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring).
In concurring, I wish to express that Henrietta A. Bol, deceased, executed a written instrument and subscribed same, directing a transfer of her assets for equal distribution under a Last Will and Testament. She created a trust in money market certificates (these are different than joint savings accounts, quite obviously). She created a credit, unto herself, in the bank by having this language imprinted: “HENRIETTA A. BOL, Trustee for MARGARET TOMPKINS.” Henrietta A. Bol, decedent, as depositor, named herself as trustee of specific property and communicated that intent to a bank officer, clearly identifying the beneficiary, thus establishing a trust. When Henrietta A. Bol, decedent, wrote her Last Will and Testament excluding three siblings, and designating her brother and her sister (Tompkins) as sharing equally, her acts came within the purview of executing a written instrument changing the trust. SDCL 55-1-14 provides: “An interest in an existing trust can be transferred only by operation of law or by a written instrument subscribed by the person making the transfer or by his agent.” (Emphasis added.)