§ 4-10-816 — Specific powers of trustee

Wyoming § 4-10-816

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming
• Title 04: Fiduciaries
• Ch. 10: UNIFORM TRUST CODE
• Art. 8: DUTIES AND POWERS OF TRUSTEE

Text

(a) Without limiting the authority conferred by W.S.
4-10-815, a trustee may:
(i) Collect trust property and accept or reject
additions to the trust property from a settlor or any other
person;
(ii) Acquire or sell property, for cash or on credit,
at public or private sale;
(iii) Exchange, partition or otherwise change the
character of trust property;
(iv) Deposit trust money in an account in a regulated
financial services institution;
(v) Borrow money, with or without security, and
mortgage or pledge trust property for a period within or
extending beyond the duration of the trust;
(vi) 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, partners, members or property owners,
including merging, dissolving or otherwise changing the form of
business organization or contributing additional capital;
(vii) 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) Exercise stock options and other rights; and
(E) Deposit the securities with a depositary or
other regulated financial services institution.
(viii) 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
land to public use or grant public or private easements and make
or vacate plats and adjust boundaries;
(ix) 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;
(x) 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;
(xi) 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;
(xii) Abandon or decline to administer property of no
value or of insufficient value to justify its collection or
continued administration;
(xiii) 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 which
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.
(xiv) Pay or contest any claim, settle a claim by or
against the trust and release, in whole or in part, a claim
belonging to the trust;
(xv) 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;
(xvi) Exercise elections with respect to federal,
state and local taxes;
(xvii) Select a mode of payment under any employee
benefit or retirement plan, annuity or life insurance payable to
the trustee, exercise rights thereunder, including exercise of
the right to indemnification for expenses and against
liabilities, and take appropriate action to collect the
proceeds;
(xviii) 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;
(xix) Pledge trust property to guarantee loans made
by others to the beneficiary;
(xx) Appoint a trustee to act in another jurisdiction
with respect to trust property located in the other
jurisdiction, confer upon the appointed trustee all of the
powers and duties of the appointing trustee, require that the
appointed trustee furnish security and remove any trustee so
appointed;
(xxi) Pay an amount distributable to a beneficiary
who is under a legal disability or who the trustee reasonably
believes is incapacitated, by paying it directly to the
beneficiary or applying it for the beneficiary's benefit, or by:
(A) Paying it to the beneficiary's conservator
or, if the beneficiary does not have a conservator, the
beneficiary's guardian;
(B) Paying it to the beneficiary's custodian
under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act or custodial trustee
under the Uniform Custodial Trust Act and, for that purpose,
creating a custodianship or custodial trust;
(C) If the trustee does not know of a
conservator, guardian, custodian or custodial trustee, paying it
to the person's agent under a power of attorney or, if none, to
an adult relative or other person having legal or physical care
or custody of the beneficiary, to be expended on the
beneficiary's behalf;
(D) Managing it as a separate fund on the
beneficiary's behalf, subject to the beneficiary's continuing
right to withdraw the distribution; and
(E) Creating or funding a plan under Section 529
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, in effect on July 1, 2003,
for the beneficiary's benefit.
(xxii) 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;
(xxiii) Resolve a dispute concerning the
interpretation of the trust or its administration by mediation,
arbitration, or other procedure for alternative dispute
resolution;
(xxiv) 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;
(xxv) Sign and deliver contracts and other
instruments that are useful to achieve or facilitate the
exercise of the trustee's powers;
(xxvi) Purchase and pay from trust principal the
premiums on life insurance;
(xxvii) 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;
and
(xxviii) Distribute all or any portion of trust
income or principal in further trust for the benefit of the
trust beneficiaries pursuant to authority granted in the trust
instrument to make discretionary or mandatory distributions of
trust income or principal to the trust beneficiaries, whether or
not the discretionary or mandatory distributions are pursuant to
an ascertainable standard;
(xxix) Make a distribution of trust income to or for
the benefit of a beneficiary or pay trust expenses from a trust
with two (2) or more subtrusts or shares for the beneficiary
from any subtrust or share requiring or permitting income
distributions to the beneficiary;
(xxx) Separate a trust for the benefit of more than
one (1) beneficiary into separate trusts or shares for each
beneficiary, unless the trust instrument requires the trust
property to be held in one (1) trust for the beneficiaries;
(xxxi) Exercise elections with respect to federal,
state and local taxes;
(xxxii) Decide each trust taxable year whether
principal distributions made from a trust to a beneficiary
include net realized capital gains and losses in section 643(a)
of the Internal Revenue Code distributable net income; and
(xxxiii) Except as otherwise provided under this
paragraph or under the terms of a trust, if all or any portion
of the trust is treated as being owned by a person under 26
U.S.C. § 671 or any similar federal, state or other tax law, the
trustee may, in the trustee's sole discretion, reimburse or pay
on behalf of the person being treated as the owner any amount of
the person's personal federal, state or other income tax
liability that is attributable to the inclusion of the trust's
income, capital gains, deductions or credits in the calculation
of the person's taxable income. This paragraph shall not apply
to a trustee who is the settlor or a person who is a related or
subordinate party to the settlor within the meaning of 26 U.S.C.
§ 672(c). Neither the power authorized under this paragraph or
the exercise of the power under this paragraph shall cause the
settlor to be treated as a beneficiary of the trust, the trust
property to be includable in the estate of the settlor or
otherwise entitle a creditor of the settlor to compel, attach or
otherwise encumber a payment authorized under this paragraph.
The provisions of this paragraph apply to all trusts governed by
the laws of this state unless an independent trustee of the
trust irrevocably elects otherwise in writing.
(b) The powers provided in paragraphs (a)(xxviii) and
(xxxiii) of this section shall not be exercised in any manner
that would prevent qualification for a federal estate or gift
tax marital deduction, federal estate or gift tax charitable
deduction, or other federal income, estate, gift or generation-
skipping transfer tax benefit claimed for the trust from which
the distribution in further trust is made. If the trustee making
a distribution in further trust under paragraph (a)(xxviii) of
this section is a beneficiary of the trust from which the
distribution in further trust is made, the distribution in
further trust may not change the trustee's interest as a
beneficiary in the trust. A trustee shall not be liable for
exercising the powers permitted under paragraphs (a)(xxviii) or
(xxxiii) of this section if the power is exercised in good
faith.
(c) This section may be cited as the Uniform Trustee
Powers Act.