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Terms Used In Michigan Laws 700.2511

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Devise: To gift property by will.
  • Devise: means , when used as a noun, a testamentary disposition of real or personal property and, when used as a verb, to dispose of real or personal property by will. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
  • Governing instrument: means a deed; will; trust; funeral representative designation; insurance or annuity policy; account with POD designation; security registered in beneficiary form (TOD); pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan; instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney; or dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type. See Michigan Laws 700.1104
  • Person: means an individual or an organization. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
  • Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, and includes both real and personal property or an interest in real or personal property. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
  • terms of the trust: means the manifestation of the settlor's intent regarding a trust's provisions as expressed in the trust instrument or as may be established by other evidence that would be admissible in a judicial proceeding. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
  • Testator: includes an individual of either gender. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
  • Trust: includes , but is not limited to, an express trust, private or charitable, with additions to the trust, wherever and however created. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • Trustee: includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by the court. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
  (1) A will may validly devise property to the trustee of a trust established or to be established in any of the following manners:
  (a) During the testator‘s lifetime by the testator, by the testator and some other person, or by some other person, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, although the settlor has reserved any or all rights of ownership of the insurance contracts.
  (b) At the testator’s death by the testator’s devise to the trustee, if the trust is identified in the testator’s will and its terms are set forth in a written instrument, other than a will, executed before, concurrently with, or after the execution of the testator’s will or in another individual’s will if that other individual has predeceased the testator, regardless of the existence, size, or character of the trust corpus.
  (2) A devise described in subsection (1) is not invalid because the trust is amendable or revocable, or because the trust was amended after the execution of the will or the testator’s death. Unless the testator’s will provides otherwise, property devised to a trust described in subsection (1) is not held under a trust created by the will of the testator, but it becomes a part of the trust to which it is devised, and shall be administered and disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the governing instrument setting forth the terms of the trust, including an amendment to the trust made before or after the testator’s death.
  (3) Unless the testator’s will provides otherwise, a revocation or termination of the trust before the testator’s death causes the devise to lapse.