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Prob. Code 15402

The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.

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Haggerty v. Thornton (2024) 15 Cal. 5th 729

If the revocable trust instrument specifies a method for modification, the trust may be modified via the Probate Code section 15401 procedures for revocation, including the statutory method, unless the trust instrument provides a method of modification and explicitly makes it exclusive, or otherwise expressly precludes the use of revocation procedures for modification.  (Prob. Code 15402.) Read More

Diaz v. Zuniga, No. B318131, 2023 Cal. App. LEXIS 395 (Ct. App. May 19, 2023)

Following Balistreri v. Balistreri (2022) 75 Cal.App.5th 511, this decision holds that if a trust provides a procedure or method for amending the trust, whether phrased as exclusive or optional, any amendment must conform to that procedure or method; otherwise it is invalid.  Prob. Code 15402’s “qualification ‘[u]nless the trust instrument provides otherwise’ indicates that if any modification method is… Read More