## Facts

- Will C. Taliaferro executed estate-planning instruments while hospitalized, including a will, a business trust, and a separate revocable inter vivos “personal” trust covering personal assets.
- The personal trust declaration stated that Will established the trust, appointed himself trustee, and accepted and held described property in trust, as listed on an attached schedule.
- The schedule identified specific assets (including bank stock interests, insurance-related interests, and tangible personal property).
- The trust provided income to Will for life, then distributions to named beneficiaries (including Adoria M. Taliaferro), with a remainder interest to Will’s surviving spouse, Betty Taliaferro.
- Will executed formal transfer documents placing business stock into the separate business trust but did not execute separate assignment instruments transferring the personal assets to himself as trustee of the personal trust.
- After Will’s death, Betty (surviving spouse, executrix, and successor trustee) sued to invalidate the personal trust, asserting that no effective funding transfer occurred and the assets should pass through probate.

## Issues

1. Whether an inter vivos trust created by declaration fails for lack of a separate transfer of legal title when the settlor and trustee are the same person.
2. What intent and actions are sufficient to create an express trust by declaration, including whether the declaration and identification of property can effect a present transfer of an equitable interest to beneficiaries.

## Decision

- The Kansas Supreme Court reversed the trial court and upheld the validity of the personal revocable inter vivos trust.
- The court held that when a trust is created by declaration and the settlor is also the trustee, no separate conveyance of legal title to the trustee is required.
- The court treated the written declaration, together with the attached property schedule, as establishing a present intent to create the trust and to transfer equitable interests to the beneficiaries.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with treating the scheduled assets as trust property rather than probate property.

## Legal Principles

- An express trust requires (1) an explicit declaration and intent to create a trust, (2) definite property capable of being held in trust, and (3) duties to hold and apply the property for the benefit of beneficiaries under stated directions.
- Although a trustee must hold legal title to trust property, no transfer instrument is required when the settlor and trustee are the same person because legal title is already held by that person.
- A declaration of trust can operate as a conveyance of an equitable interest to beneficiaries when it reflects a present intent to create the fiduciary relationship and identifies the property to be held in trust.
- Once a trust is created, later inconsistent statements or conduct do not nullify its creation; they are immaterial unless they constitute a revocation in accordance with the trust’s terms, and trustee misconduct may warrant removal rather than termination.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a revocable inter vivos “personal” trust created by written declaration and a property schedule, holding that when the settlor and trustee are the same person, the declaration can create the trust and transfer equitable interests without separate self-directed conveyance documents.


Taliaferro v. Taliaferro, 260 Kan. 573, 921 P.2d 803 (Kan. 1996)