Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Article, “Trust decanting post-‘Kraft’: the SJC speaks again” by Joseph L. Bierwirth Jr. and Ryan P. McManus

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

The Supreme Judicial Court recently had an opportunity once more to provide common law guidance to trust and estate practitioners on the trust planning technique known as “decanting.”

The decision, Ferri v. Powell-Ferri, 476 Mass. 651 (2017), follows the court’s ruling in Morse v. Kraft, 466 Mass. 92 (2013). The Ferri case underscores the substantive law principles articulated in Kraft, and affirms the common-law authority of trustees of a Massachusetts irrevocable trust to decant the trust assets to a new irrevocable trust with different terms, provided that such decanting is permitted by the terms of the trust.