HB 5531 Summary

• Revises power of attorney execution requirements to allow signing by another individual in the principal's conscious physical presence, with two witnesses and optional notary acknowledgment for presumed genuineness.

• Modifies the Uniform Trust Code to allow trustees to send notices to designated representatives instead of individual beneficiaries, and adds definition of "terms of a trust" including provisions established by court order or nonjudicial settlement agreements.

• Extends the perpetual duration rule for trusts created on or after January 1, 2020, from 90 years to 800 years for nonvested property interests and powers of appointment.

• Establishes that property conveyed abutting a right-of-way includes the grantor's fee interest in the right-of-way unless the grantor retains adjacent property, explicitly reserves the interest, or evidence shows the right-of-way was dedicated to the municipality.

• Allows arbitrators and umpires whose oaths are retained on file by mediation or arbitration organizations to proceed without taking a separate oath for each matter, effective October 1, 2020.