§ 816 — Specific powers of trustee

Without limiting the authority conferred by Section 815, a trustee may: (1) collect trust property and accept or reject additions to the trust property from a settlor or any other person; (2) acquire or sell property, for cash or on credit, at public or private sale; (3) exchange, partition, or otherwise change the character of trust property; (4) deposit trust money in an account in a regulated financial-service institution; (5) borrow money, with or without security, and mortgage or pledge or otherwise encumber trust property for a period within or extending beyond the duration of the trust; (6) with respect to an interest in a proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, corporation, or other form of business or enterprise, continue the business or other enterprise and take any action that may be taken by shareholders, members, or property owners, including merging, dissolving, pledging other trust assets or guaranteeing a debt obligation of the business or enterprise, or otherwise changing the form of business organization or contributing additional capital; (7) with respect to stocks or other securities, exercise the rights of an absolute owner, including the right to: (A) vote, or give proxies to vote, with or without power of substitution, or enter into or continue a voting trust agreement; (B) hold a security in the name of a nominee or in other form without disclosure of the trust so that title may pass by delivery; (C) pay calls, assessments, and other sums chargeable or accruing against the securities, and sell or exercise stock subscription or conversion rights; (D) deposit the securities with a depository or other regulated financial-service institution; and (E) participate in mergers, consolidations, foreclosures, reorganizations, and liquidations; (8) with respect to an interest in real property, construct, or make ordinary or extraordinary repairs to, alterations to, or improvements in, buildings or other structures, demolish improvements, raze existing or erect new party walls or buildings, subdivide or develop land, dedicate any interest in real estate, dedicate land to public use or grant public or private easements, enter into contracts relating to real estate, and make or vacate plats and adjust boundaries; (9) enter into a lease for any purpose as lessor or lessee, including a lease or other arrangement for exploration and removal of natural resources, with or without the option to purchase or renew, for a period within or extending beyond the duration of the trust; (10) grant an option involving a sale, lease, or other disposition of trust property or acquire an option for the acquisition of property, including an option exercisable beyond the duration of the trust, and exercise an option so acquired; (11) insure the property of the trust against damage or loss and insure the trustee, the trustee's agents, and beneficiaries against liability arising from the administration of the trust; (12) abandon or decline to administer property of no value or of insufficient value to justify its collection or continued administration; (13) with respect to possible liability for violation of environmental law: (A) inspect or investigate property the trustee holds or has been asked to hold, or property owned or operated by an organization in which the trustee holds or has been asked to hold an interest, for the purpose of determining the application of environmental law with respect to the property; (B) take action to prevent, abate, or otherwise remedy any actual or potential violation of any environmental law affecting property held directly or indirectly by the trustee, whether taken before or after the assertion of a claim or the initiation of governmental enforcement; (C) decline to accept property into trust or disclaim any power with respect to property that is or may be burdened with liability for violation of environmental law; (D) compromise claims against the trust that may be asserted for an alleged violation of environmental law; and (E) pay the expense of any inspection, review, abatement, or remedial action to comply with environmental law; (14) pay, contest, prosecute, or abandon any claim, settle a claim or charges in favor of or against the trust, and release, in whole or in part, a claim belonging to the trust; (15) pay taxes, assessments, compensation of the trustee and of employees and agents of the trust, and other expenses incurred in the administration of the trust; (16) exercise elections with respect to federal, state, and local taxes; (17) select a mode of payment under any employee benefit or retirement plan, annuity, or life insurance payable to the trustee, exercise rights related to the employee benefit or retirement plan, annuity, or life insurance payable to the trustee, including exercise the right to indemnification for expenses and against liabilities, and take appropriate action to collect the proceeds; (18) make loans out of trust property, including loans to a beneficiary on terms and conditions the trustee considers to be fair and reasonable under the circumstances, and the trustee has a lien on future distributions for repayment of those loans; (19) pledge trust property to guarantee loans made by others to the beneficiary; (20) appoint a trustee to act in another jurisdiction to act as sole or co-trustee with respect to any part or all of trust property located in the other jurisdiction, confer upon the appointed trustee any or all of the rights, powers, and duties of the appointing trustee, require that the appointed trustee furnish security, and remove any trustee so appointed; (21) distribute income and principal in one or more of the following ways, without being required to see to the application of any distribution, as the trustee believes to be for the best interests of any beneficiary who at the time of distribution is incapacitated or in the opinion of the trustee is unable to manage property or business affairs because of incapacity: (A) directly to the beneficiary; (B) to the guardian of the estate, or if none, the guardian of the person of the beneficiary; (C) to a custodian for the beneficiary under any state's Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, Uniform Gifts to Minors Act or Uniform Custodial Trust Act, and, for that purpose, to create a custodianship or custodial trust; (D) to an adult relative of the beneficiary to be expended on the beneficiary's behalf; (E) by expending the money or using the property directly for the benefit of the beneficiary; (F) to a trust, created before the distribution becomes payable, for the sole benefit of the beneficiary and those dependent upon the beneficiary during his or her lifetime, to be administered as a part of the trust, except that any amount distributed to the trust under this subparagraph (F) shall be separately accounted for by the trustee of the trust and shall be indefeasibly vested in the beneficiary so that if the beneficiary dies before complete distribution of the amounts, the amounts and the accretions, earnings, and income, if any, shall be paid to the beneficiary's estate, except that this subparagraph (F) does not apply to the extent that it would cause a trust otherwise qualifying for the federal estate tax marital deduction not to qualify; and (G) by managing it as a separate fund on the beneficiary's behalf, subject to the beneficiary's continuing right to withdraw the distribution; (22) on distribution of trust property or the division or termination of a trust, make distributions in divided or undivided interests, allocate particular assets in proportionate or disproportionate shares, value the trust property for those purposes, and adjust for resulting differences in valuation; (23) resolve a dispute concerning the interpretation of the trust or its administration by judicial proceeding, nonjudicial settlement agreement under Section 111, mediation, arbitration, or other procedure for alternative dispute resolution; (24) prosecute or defend an action, claim, or judicial proceeding in any jurisdiction to protect trust property and the trustee in the performance of the trustee's duties; (25) execute contracts, notes, conveyances, and other instruments that are useful to achieve or facilitate the exercise of the trustee's powers, regardless of whether the instruments contain covenants and warranties binding upon and creating a charge against the trust estate or excluding personal liability; (26) on termination of the trust, exercise the powers appropriate to wind up the administration of the trust and distribute the trust property to the persons entitled to it; (27) enter into agreements for bank or other deposit accounts, safe deposit boxes, or custodian, agency, or depository arrangements for all or any part of the trust estate, including, to the extent fair to the beneficiaries, agreements for services provided by a bank operated by or affiliated with the trustee, and to pay reasonable compensation for those services, including, to the extent fair to the beneficiaries, compensation to the bank operated by or affiliated with the trustee, except that nothing in this Section shall be construed as removing any depository arrangements from the requirements of the prudent investor rule; (28) engage attorneys, auditors, financial advisors, and other agents and pay reasonable compensation to such persons; (29) invest in or hold undivided interests in property; (30) if fair to the beneficiaries, deal with the executor, trustee, or other representative of any other trust or estate in which a beneficiary of the trust has an interest, even if the trustee is an executor, trustee, or other representative of the other trust or estate; (31) make equitable division or distribution in cash or in kind, or both, and for that purpose may value any property divided or distributed in kind; (32) rely upon an affidavit, certificate, letter, or other evidence reasonably believed to be genuine and on the basis of any such evidence to make any payment or distribution in good faith without liability; (33) except as otherwise directed by the court, have all of the rights, powers, and duties given to or imposed upon the trustee by law and the terms of the trust during the period between the termination of the trust and the distribution of the trust assets and during any period in which any litigation is pending that may void or invalidate the trust in whole or in part or affect the rights, powers, duties, or discretions of the trustee; (34) plant and harvest crops; breed, raise, purchase, and sell livestock; lease land, equipment, or livestock for cash or on shares, purchase and sell, exchange or otherwise acquire or dispose of farm equipment and farm produce of all kinds; make improvements, construct, repair, or demolish and remove any buildings, structures, or fences, engage agents, managers, and employees and delegate powers to them; engage in drainage and conservation programs; terrace, clear, ditch, and drain lands and install irrigation systems; replace improvements and equipment; fertilize and improve the soil; engage in the growing, improvement, and sale of trees and other forest crops; participate or decline to participate in governmental agricultural or land programs; and perform such acts as the trustee deems appropriate using such methods as are commonly employed by other farm owners in the community in which the farm property is located; (35) drill, mine, and otherwise operate for the development of oil, gas, and other minerals; enter into contracts relating to the installation and operation of absorption and repressuring plants; enter into unitization or pooling agreements for any purpose including primary, secondary, or tertiary recovery; place and maintain pipelines; execute oil, gas, and mineral leases, division and transfer orders, grants, deeds, releases and assignments, and other instruments; participate in a cooperative coal marketing association or similar entity; and perform such other acts as the trustee deems appropriate using such methods as are commonly employed by owners of similar interests in the community in which the interests are located; (36) continue an unincorporated business and participate in its management by having the trustee or one or more agents of the trustee act as a manager with appropriate compensation from the business and incorporate the business; (37) continue a business in the partnership form and participate in its management by having the trustee or one or more agents of the trustee act as a partner, limited partner, or employee with appropriate compensation from the business; enter into new partnership agreements and incorporate the business; and, with respect to activities under this paragraph (37), the trustee or the agent or agents of the trustee shall not be personally liable to third persons with respect to actions not sounding in tort unless the trustee or agent fails to identify the trust estate and disclose that the trustee or agent is acting in a representative capacity, except that nothing in this paragraph impairs in any way the liability of the trust estate with respect to activities under this paragraph (37) to the extent of the assets of the trust estate; (38) Release, by means of any written renunciation, relinquishment, surrender, refusal to accept, extinguishment, and any other form of release, any power granted to the trustee by applicable law or the terms of a trust and held by such trustee in its fiduciary capacity, including any power to invade property, any power to alter, amend, or revoke any instrument, whether or not such release causes a termination of any right or interest thereunder, and any power remaining where one or more partial releases have heretofore or hereafter been made with respect to such power, whether heretofore or hereafter created or reserved as to: (i) any property that is subject thereto; (ii) any one or more of the objects thereof; or (iii) limit in any other respect the extent to which it may be exercised. The release may be permanent or applicable only for a specific time and may apply only to the trustee executing the release or the trustee and all future trustees, successor trustees, and co-trustees of the trust acting at any time or from time to time.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 101-48, eff. 1-1-20; 102-558, eff. 8-20-21.)