SB 801: California Uniform Directed Trust Act.

Existing law establishes procedures for the creation, modification, and termination of a trust and regulates the administration of trusts by trustees on behalf of beneficiaries.

This bill would enact the California Uniform Directed Trust Act to provide a method for regulating trusts where a person who is not a trustee has been given a role in directing the trust. The bill would require the consent of the public administrator, public guardian, or public conservator before they are appointed to act as a trust director or directed trustee. The bill would set forth the duties and responsibilities of the trust director and the duties and responsibilities of the directed trustee, including specifying what powers may be given to a trust director and the information required to be exchanged by the trust director and the directed trustee. The bill would require a directed trustee to take reasonable action to comply with a trust directors exercise or nonexercise of a power of direction, except that the directed trustee is not required to comply with a trust directors exercise or nonexercise of a power of direction to the extent that, by complying, the trustee would engage in willful misconduct. The bill would exempt from duties and liabilities under the act a trust director who is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to provide health care in the ordinary course of the trust directors business or practice of a profession, to the extent the trust director acts in that capacity. The bill would make conforming changes to related provisions.