UT Bar Wills Trusts and Estates 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Utah decedent dies intestate survived by a spouse and one child from a prior marriage. What is the surviving spouse's intestate share?
- The entire estate
- The first $75,000 plus one-half of the remaining balance (Correct answer)
- One-third of the estate
- One-half of the estate with no fixed dollar amount
Correct answer: The first $75,000 plus one-half of the remaining balance
Under Utah Code § 75-2-102, when the decedent leaves descendants who are not descendants of the surviving spouse, the spouse takes the first $75,000 plus one-half of the balance.
Question 2: A document intended as a will fails to meet Utah's execution formalities because only one witness signed. Can it still be admitted to probate?
- No, execution defects are always fatal
- Yes, if the proponent shows by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended it as a will (Correct answer)
- Yes, if a majority of heirs consent
- Only if the document was notarized
Correct answer: Yes, if the proponent shows by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended it as a will
Utah adopted the UPC harmless-error rule (§ 75-2-503), allowing a defectively executed document to be treated as a will upon clear and convincing evidence of testamentary intent.
Question 3: A testator's will leaves a gift to 'my brother Sam,' but Sam predeceases the testator, leaving a daughter. The will has no alternative gift. Under Utah's anti-lapse statute, who takes the gift?
- The residuary beneficiaries
- The testator's intestate heirs
- Sam's daughter, as a descendant of a deceased devisee covered by the statute (Correct answer)
- The State of Utah
Correct answer: Sam's daughter, as a descendant of a deceased devisee covered by the statute
Utah's anti-lapse statute (§ 75-2-603) substitutes the descendants of a deceased devisee who was a grandparent or descendant of a grandparent of the testator, so Sam's daughter takes.
Question 4: A trustee of a Utah trust invests the entire corpus in a single speculative stock, which loses most of its value. Which fiduciary duty has the trustee most clearly breached?
- The duty of loyalty
- The duty to diversify under the prudent investor rule (Correct answer)
- The duty of impartiality
- The duty to inform and account
Correct answer: The duty to diversify under the prudent investor rule
The Utah Uniform Prudent Investor Act requires trustees to diversify investments unless special circumstances justify not doing so, and concentrating the corpus in one speculative stock breaches that duty.
Question 5: A surviving spouse in Utah is unhappy with the small gift left in the deceased spouse's will. What statutory protection allows the spouse to claim a share of the augmented estate instead?
- The homestead allowance only
- The elective share, generally one-third of the augmented estate (Correct answer)
- Dower and curtesy rights
- A forced heirship claim to one-half of all property
Correct answer: The elective share, generally one-third of the augmented estate
Under Utah Code § 75-2-202, a surviving spouse may elect to take one-third of the augmented estate rather than accept the will's provisions.
Question 6: A settlor creates a spendthrift trust in Utah for his adult son. Which creditor can still reach the son's interest despite the spendthrift clause?
- A credit card company
- A judgment creditor from a car accident
- A claimant holding a valid child support order against the son (Correct answer)
- A friend who made a personal loan to the son
Correct answer: A claimant holding a valid child support order against the son
Even with a spendthrift provision, Utah's Uniform Trust Code allows exception creditors such as a child with a support judgment to reach the beneficiary's interest.
Question 7: A charitable trust in Utah was created to fund a specific polio hospital that has since closed because polio was eradicated locally. The settlor had a general charitable intent. What should the court do?
- Terminate the trust and return assets to the settlor's heirs
- Apply cy pres and direct the funds to a similar charitable medical purpose (Correct answer)
- Convert the trust into a private trust for hospital employees
- Escheat the funds to the state
Correct answer: Apply cy pres and direct the funds to a similar charitable medical purpose
Under the cy pres doctrine, codified in Utah's Uniform Trust Code, a court may modify a charitable trust whose purpose has become impracticable to serve a similar charitable purpose consistent with the settlor's intent.
UT Bar Wills Trusts and Estates 3
A Utah decedent dies intestate survived by a spouse and one child from a prior marriage.
What is the surviving spouse's intestate share?