NYSBA Supports Legislation To Create Mechanism To Prove the Existence of Lost Trusts
10.28.2025
The New York State Bar Association has endorsed a bill that establishes a way to prove the existence of a lost or destroyed trust.
The association’s governing body, the House of Delegates, adopted the recommendation following a report from the Trusts and Estates Law Section.
Lindsay Feuer, counsel at McGuireWoods and co-chair of the Legislation and Government Relations Committee of the Trusts and Estates Law Section, presented the recommendations to the House of Delegates at its meeting on Saturday.
“This is an important statute because it’s important for us to have a mechanism so we can respect a grantor’s wishes,” said Feuer. “It’s essential that the assets of a lifetime trust will be continued to be held in trust and administered for the beneficiaries, even if the existence of the the original trust instrument can’t be found.”
The legislation (A3381/S7498) covers lifetime trusts, which are created when a person is still alive.
“Since these are written instruments, they could easily be destroyed, they can be misplaced, they can burn in a fire, etc,” said Feuer. “Things happen, and oftentimes we’ll only have an unsigned copy of a trust agreement or other extrinsic evidence of a trust agreement, along with a bank account, securities account, or other type of property that’s titled in the name of a trust.”
The bill is currently in committee in the Assembly and the state Senate.
