[WSBAPT] Distribution at Death of Beneficiary of Trust Created Under a Will

[Jacob Menashe]

My associate and I have been going round and round about what happens if a beneficiary of an irrevocable trust, created in a decedent’s last will, passes away and there is no one left as a remainder beneficiary. In the situation we are imagining, X beneficiary’s trust at X’s death goes to Y’s trust (also created under the same will) and vice-versa. So let’s say X passes away first and everything is in Y’s trust. Then Y passes away. And neither X nor Y have any descendants (which I think is an important fact). Plus, there were no other beneficiaries in the decedent’s will; only the trusts for X and Y.)

So, where will the trust go? To the initial decedent’s heirs (not descendants, though, as X and Y were her only children) or will it go at Y’s death to Y’s heirs?

We have been round and round about this, and have looked at RCW 11.12.120 and RCW 11.12.110, and a couple interesting cases, Button v. Old National Bank and Kvande v. Olsen. We think if we had a revocable living trust, where the beneficiary passed away before the grantor, then there would be a good argument we are looking at the decedent’s heirs, not Y’s. But here we have the intervening chunk of time, where the beneficiary of the trust created in the decedent’s will passed away after the decedent.

In summary, then, my query is: Absent anywhere else to go, will the trust pass at Y’s death to the decedent’s heirs or to the beneficiary Y’s heirs?

Thanks for any thoughts on this. We are fairly stuck and I hope someone can get us unstuck.

Sincerely,

Jacob

Jacob H. Menashe
Hickman Menashe, PS
4211 Alderwood Mall Blvd., Suite 202
Lynnwood, WA 98036
(425) 744-5658 phone
(425) 744-6078 fax
Satellite Office in Bellevue
www.hickmanmenashe.com

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