Letting Go of the Dead Hand: Part IILetting Go of the Dead Hand: Part II

This article is the second in a series considering the downsides of trustor’s dead hand control in trust planning. In the first article, we addressed the challenges and limitations of traditional trust planning.¹ We’ll now address the downsides of the relatively new phenomenon colloquially referred to as “silent trusts” or “quiet trusts.”  

As trust laws have evolved, we can now draft trusts that eliminate a beneficiary’s right to get any information about a trust completely for long periods of time. Generally, fiduciaries have a duty to notify and inform beneficiaries about the existence of the trust, provide them with basic information like account statements and respond to inquiries.² Silent trusts generally require someone to serve as...