Also known as: management trusts · business trust · managing trust
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An inter vivos trust established to hold, manage, and administer the settlor's assets during the settlor's lifetime. The trust is typically revocable and amendable. A will may validly pour assets into the trust at the settlor's death provided the will identifies the trust and its terms appear in a separate written instrument.
Michael Miller funds the Michael Miller Management Trust with his business interests and contributes the trust as a limited partner in a venture alongside Millennium Media. Millennium Media's shareholders later vote to dissolve the company before the venture completes its term. The management trust continues as a partner because the statute's rule for willful termination applies only to entities that are not trusts other than business trusts.
Monica Morgan creates the Morgan Family Management Trust to oversee her investment portfolio and admits the trust as a partner in a six-year research collaboration with Metro Bank. Metro Bank dissolves its corporate existence midway through the project to pursue an acquisition. The management trust remains in the partnership because the statute excludes trusts other than business trusts from the willful-dissolution ground for dissociation.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
No. The governing statute validates a pour-over devise regardless of the trust's size or character at the time the will is executed. An unfunded revocable management trust can still receive assets at death once the trust instrument exists in writing.
No. The statute expressly provides that a devise to a trust remains valid even if the trust is amended after the will or after the testator's death. The pour-over is governed by the trust terms as they exist at death.
A management trust is treated as a trust other than a business trust. Partnership statutes therefore exclude it from the category of persons that can be dissociated for willful dissolution or termination.