In re Estate of Groesbeck

In In re Estate of Groesbeck, 935 P.2d 1255 (Utah 1997) the Court held that a revocable trust can be created, without being deemed illusory, as long as title to the property passes to the trustee and vested interests are created in the beneficiaries, even if these interests are subject to divestiture. Id. at 1257-58 That is, a reservation of the power to revoke does not make a trust invalid. Id. at 1257. The Court further observed that vested beneficiary interests are "subject to being divested by the exercise of the reserved power to amend or revoke the indenture in trust." Id. at 1258. Thus, the Court concluded that the trust was valid, even though the Groesbecks had reserved the right to revoke the trust and created vested beneficiary interests that were subject to divestiture via the specific provisions of the trust itself. Id. at 1258. Groesbeck, therefore, does not require us to disregard the requirements of the trust language. The Groesbeck trust language was as follows: "The interest of the beneficiaries is a present interest which shall continue until this Trust is revoked or terminated other than by death." Id. at 1258.