Connecticut Uniform Trust Decanting Act Summary

• Adopts the Connecticut Uniform Trust Decanting Act, effective January 1, 2025, allowing authorized fiduciaries to distribute property from one trust to another trust (decanting) or modify trust terms without court approval, provided they give 60 days' notice to beneficiaries and interested parties.

• Establishes three categories of decanting authority: fiduciaries with expanded distributive discretion (broadest powers), limited distributive discretion (restricted powers), and special-needs fiduciaries (for beneficiaries with disabilities seeking to protect government benefits eligibility).

• Imposes safeguards including requirements that second trusts maintain substantially similar beneficiaries and vested interests, protections for charitable interests, compliance with federal tax law provisions, and court authority to provide instructions or disapprove exercises of decanting power.

• Requires fiduciaries to act in accordance with fiduciary duties and the purposes of the original trust; allows trust instruments to restrict or prohibit the decanting power and permits testamentary trusts to exercise the power only with Probate Court approval.

• Establishes a $300 filing fee for petitions related to decanting power exercises in Probate Court and adds Probate Court jurisdiction over decanting power petitions alongside Superior Court authority over inter vivos trust matters.