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Multiple Choice

Which of the following is NOT a trust requirement?

The essential idea here is what must be present to create a valid trust: clear intention to create a trust, identifiable trust property (the res), and a valid, lawful purpose. A trustee is also needed to hold and manage that property for the beneficiaries. A dispositive power—the trustee’s authority to decide who gets the trust property and when—is not required to form a trust. You can have a valid trust with fixed terms that automatically allocate assets to named beneficiaries, without any discretionary distribution power. So the option describing a dispositive power is not a trust requirement, making it the correct choice. The other elements—clear intention, identifiable property, and a valid purpose—are the things that must be present for a trust to arise.

The essential idea here is what must be present to create a valid trust: clear intention to create a trust, identifiable trust property (the res), and a valid, lawful purpose. A trustee is also needed to hold and manage that property for the beneficiaries. A dispositive power—the trustee’s authority to decide who gets the trust property and when—is not required to form a trust. You can have a valid trust with fixed terms that automatically allocate assets to named beneficiaries, without any discretionary distribution power. So the option describing a dispositive power is not a trust requirement, making it the correct choice. The other elements—clear intention, identifiable property, and a valid purpose—are the things that must be present for a trust to arise.