## Facts

- A decedent’s will created a testamentary charitable trust naming trustees and four charitable beneficiaries.
- The instrument directed trustees to administer and invest the trust assets and make quarterly income distributions to the charities for ten years.
- The will further directed that, after the ten-year term, the trust corpus be distributed to the same four charities.
- Less than one year after the decedent’s death, two beneficiary charities petitioned to terminate the trust and distribute the corpus immediately.
- The charities argued the trust was “passive” and that immediate distribution would benefit the charities more than continued administration during the ten-year term.

## Issues

1. Whether a testamentary charitable trust requiring investment, administration, and periodic income distributions for a fixed ten-year term is a passive trust subject to judicial extinction and immediate distribution to beneficiaries.
2. Whether a court may terminate such a valid trust before the stated term expires based solely on the beneficiaries’ asserted advantage from immediate corpus distribution.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the order terminating the trust and requiring immediate distribution of the corpus.
- The court held the trust was active, not passive, because it imposed continuing fiduciary and administrative duties (asset management and scheduled distributions).
- The court held a court may not terminate a valid testamentary trust before expiration of the express term where the trust’s purposes remain legal and capable of fulfillment.
- The case was remanded with directions to enforce the trust according to its ten-year term and distribution plan.

## Legal Principles

- A trust is not “passive” where trustees are charged with ongoing duties to administer, invest, and make periodic distributions under the instrument.
- Judicial termination of a trust is generally proper only when the trust purpose has been accomplished or has become impossible to accomplish.
- A trust with a specific duration stated by the settlor may not be terminated before the stated term ends merely because beneficiaries prefer or would benefit from earlier distribution.
- Courts must respect a settlor’s lawful intent in structuring the timing and manner of distributions.

## Conclusion

The court enforced the fixed ten-year structure of a testamentary charitable trust, rejecting both “passive trust” characterization and beneficiary-preference rationales for early termination, and reaffirming that courts may not override a settlor’s lawful, express durational terms absent failure or impossibility of the trust’s purposes.


Schwarzkopf v. Am. Heart Ass’n of Greater Miami, Inc., 541 So. 2d 1348 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1989)