Estate Planning Update Summer 2019 - Connecticut Updates: Connecticut Updates Trust Laws

The Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill that significantly updates Connecticut trust law. The bill contains Connecticut's version of the Uniform Trust Code (which was promulgated in 2000 and has been adopted in more than 30 states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New Jersey). Effective in 2020, the bill also:

• provides for the creation of directed trusts, which allow individuals who are not trustees to direct the trustee with respect to trust investments, distributions and other matters;
• provides for the creation of self-settled asset protection trusts that, in certain circumstances, permit the person who created the trust to benefit from the trust assets without making the trust assets available to creditors of the person who created the trust; and
• lengthens the maximum permissible duration for a Connecticut trust from 90 to 800 years for trusts that become irrevocable on or after January 1, 2020.

Governor Lamont signed the bill on July 12, 2019, and we will provide a more in-depth summary of the provisions of the bill in our next newsletter.