Tennessee § 35-15-504 Discretionary interests - Effect thereof

Tennessee Statutes

§ 35-15-504 — Discretionary interests - Effect thereof

Tennessee § 35-15-504

Title35

This text of Tennessee § 35-15-504 (Discretionary interests - Effect thereof) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-504 (2026).

Text

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

(b)Relative to a discretionary interest, whether or not a trust contains a spendthrift provision:

(1)No creditor or assignee shall force or otherwise reach a distribution with regard to a discretionary interest;

(2)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;

(3)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

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(a) A discretionary interest is neither a property interest nor an enforceable right; it is a mere expectancy. (b) Relative to a discretionary interest, whether or not a trust contains a spendthrift provision: (1) No creditor or assignee shall force or otherwise reach a distribution with regard to a discretionary interest; (2) 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; (3) 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; (4) No trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary is liable to any creditor or assignee for paying the expenses of a beneficiary of a discretionary interest; (5) (A) Regardless of whether a beneficiary holding a discretionary interest is also a trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary, subdivisions (b)(1)-(4) remain applicable if: (i) The beneficiary-fiduciary does not have the discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary; (ii) The beneficiary-fiduciary's discretion to make or participate in making distributions to such beneficiary-fiduciary is limited by an ascertainable standard; or (iii) 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; (B) 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.