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Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-504

Discretionary interests — Effect thereof

Known as the Tennessee Uniform Trust Code

The act spans §§ 35–35 (113 sections).

Acts 2004, ch. 537, § 43; 2007, ch. 24, § 22; 2013, ch. 390, § 17.

(1) A discretionary interest is neither a property interest nor an enforceable right; it is a mere expectancy.

(2) Relative to a discretionary interest, whether or not a trust contains a spendthrift provision: No creditor or assignee shall force or otherwise reach a distribution with regard to a discretionary interest;

(3) No creditor or assignee shall require a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary to exercise the trustee's, cotrustee's or other fiduciary's discretion to make a distribution with regard to a discretionary interest;

(4) Regardless of whether a beneficiary has any outstanding creditors or assignees, a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary of a discretionary interest may directly pay any expense on behalf of such beneficiary and may exhaust the income and principal of the trust for the benefit of such beneficiary;

(5) No trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary is liable to any creditor or assignee for paying the expenses of a beneficiary of a discretionary interest;

(6) Regardless of whether a beneficiary holding a discretionary interest is also a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary, subdivisions (b)(1)-(4) remain applicable if: The beneficiary-fiduciary does not have the discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary;

(7) The beneficiary-fiduciary's discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary is limited by an ascertainable standard; or

(8) The beneficiary-fiduciary's discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary is exercisable only with the consent of a cotrustee or another person holding an adverse interest.

(9) A creditor or assignee may compel or otherwise reach a distribution only to the extent the creditor or assignee may compel or otherwise reach a distribution if the beneficiary was not acting as a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary.

Current official text: Tennessee Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Tennessee statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.