As used in the Uniform Trust Code:

A. "action", with respect to an act of a trustee, includes a failure to act;

B. "ascertainable standard" means a standard relating to an individual's health, education, support or maintenance within the meaning of Subparagraph (A) of Paragraph (1) of Subsection (b) of Section 2041 and Paragraph (1) of Subsection (c) of Section 2514 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended;

C. "beneficiary" means a person that:

(1) has a present or future beneficial interest in a trust, vested or contingent; or

(2) in a capacity other than that of trustee, holds a power of appointment over trust property;

D. "charitable trust" means a trust or portion of a trust created for a charitable purpose described in Subsection A of Section 46A-4-405 NMSA 1978;

E. "conservator" means a person appointed by the court to administer the estate of a minor or adult individual;

F. "environmental law" means a federal, state or local law, rule, regulation or ordinance relating to protection of the environment;

G. "guardian" means a person appointed by the court or a parent to make decisions regarding the support, care, education, health and welfare of a minor or adult person. "Guardian" does not include a guardian ad litem;

H. "interests of the beneficiaries" means the beneficial interests provided in the terms of the trust;

I. "jurisdiction", with respect to a geographic area, includes a state or country;

J. "person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, public corporation or any other legal or commercial entity;

K. "power of withdrawal" means a presently exercisable general power of appointment other than a power exercisable:

(1) by a trustee and limited by an ascertainable standard; or

(2) by another person only upon consent of the trustee or a person holding an adverse interest;

L. "property" means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest therein;

M. "qualified beneficiary" means a beneficiary who, on the date the beneficiary's qualification is determined:

(1) is a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal;

(2) would be a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal if the interests of the distributees described in Paragraph (1) of this subsection terminated on that date without causing the trust to terminate; or

(3) would be a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal if the trust terminated on that date;

N. "revocable", as applied to a trust, means revocable by the settlor without the consent of the trustee or a person holding an adverse interest;

O. "settlor" means a person, including a testator, who creates or contributes property to a trust. If more than one person creates or contributes property to a trust, each person is a settlor of the portion of the trust property attributable to that person's contribution, except to the extent another person has the power to revoke or withdraw that portion;

P. "spendthrift provision" means a term of a trust that restrains both voluntary and involuntary transfer of a beneficiary's interest;

Q. "state" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. "State" includes an Indian tribe, pueblo, nation or band recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state;

R. "terms of a trust" means:

(1) except as otherwise provided in Paragraph (2) of this subsection, the manifestation of the settlor's intent regarding a trust's provisions as:

(a) expressed in the trust instrument; or

(b) established by other evidence that would be admissible in a judicial proceeding; or

(2) the trust's provisions as established, determined or amended by:

(a) a trustee or trust director in accordance with applicable law;

(b) court order; or

(c) a nonjudicial settlement agreement under Section 46A-1-111 NMSA 1978;

S. "trust instrument" means an instrument executed by the settlor that contains terms of the trust, including any amendments thereto; and

T. "trustee" includes an original trustee, an additional trustee, a successor trustee and a co-trustee.

History: Laws 2003, ch. 122, § 1-103; 2007, ch. 128, § 2; 2018, ch. 63, § 20.

Cross references. — For Section 2514 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, see 26 U.S.C. § 2514.

The 2018 amendment, effective January 1, 2019, revised the definition of "terms of a trust" as used in the Uniform Trust Code; in Subsection R, added paragraph designation "(1)", in Paragraph R(1), added "except as otherwise provided n Paragraph (2) of this subsection", added subparagraph designations "(a)" and "(b)", in Subparagraph R(1)(a), after "or", deleted "as may be", at the end of Subparagraph R(1)(b) added "or", and added Paragraph R(2).

The 2007 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, added the definition of "ascertainable standard" and changed the definition of "power of withdrawal" .

Interpretation of the terms of a trust. — Where husband and wife entered into a community property trust which reserved to the grantors the power to amend or revoke the trust by an instrument signed by the grantors and delivered in grantors' lifetimes to the trustee; the trust provided that the terms of the trust were to be liberally construed in favor of the surviving spouse's interests and above the interests of the other beneficiaries, that upon the death of one grantor, the surviving grantor had the unrestricted right to take any and all of the trust assets upon demand, that the surviving grantor had the right to redirect the distribution of the trust remainder in the surviving grantor's last will and testament, and that words used in the plural included the singular; and the attorney who drafted the trust stated that the trust was drafted to confer upon the surviving spouse the power to amend the trust after the death of one spouse, the trust granted to the surviving spouse the power to amend the trust after the death of the other spouse. Cable v. Wells Fargo Bank N.M., N.A., 2010-NMSC-017, 148 N.M. 127, 231 P.3d 108, aff'g on different grounds, 2008-NMCA-005, 143 N.M. 269, 175 P.3d 937.