Estate Planning Amendments
SB 206 makes a broad set of amendments to Utah’s estate-planning, probate, guardianship, trust, power of attorney, and advance health care directive laws. It updates and adds definitions across multiple titles, clarifies who may make a valid will and what constitutes testamentary capacity, revises the rule against perpetuities for powers of appointment, and modernizes probate procedures and guardianship standards. The bill also revises capacity rules for powers of attorney and advance health care directives, and updates the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act to align capacity and terminology with the rest of the bill.
A major feature of the bill is the recodification and expansion of Utah’s asset protection trust provisions. It moves and reorganizes those rules into a new part, defines asset protection trusts more clearly, makes an affidavit of solvency optional rather than mandatory, shortens and clarifies the limitations period for certain fraudulent-transfer claims, and adds rules for multiple transfers and financing-related reconveyances. The bill also expressly authorizes trust decanting in certain circumstances, meaning a trustee may move assets into a new trust or modify trust terms under specified conditions, while preserving limits for restricted trustees and tax-sensitive trusts. It includes coordination clauses to avoid conflicts with related legislation and takes effect May 7, 2025.
The bill amends numerous sections of the Utah Code, including probate, guardianship, trust, powers of appointment, advance health care directives, and the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. It creates new sections governing trust decanting and asset protection trusts, recodifies and restructures existing asset protection trust law, and updates cross-references and technical language throughout the trust and estate code. The practical effect is to change the standards and procedures used by courts, trustees, agents, guardians, and estate planners, while also affecting creditors’ remedies against certain irrevocable trusts and transfers.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported. It received favorable recommendations in both chambers and passed the Senate and House with unanimous or near-unanimous votes, including 24-0 in the Senate on second reading, 22-0 on third reading, and 68-0 in the House on third reading. The voting history suggests little public opposition and a general consensus that the bill was a technical and policy update to Utah’s estate-planning framework.
No committee transcript was provided, and the recorded votes show minimal opposition, so there is little evidence of strong controversy in the available materials. The most likely areas of substantive concern are the bill’s asset protection trust provisions, which strengthen protections against creditor claims and limit the time and circumstances under which voidable-transfer actions may be brought, and the guardianship changes, which reduce the requirement that an allegedly incapacitated person be physically present at a hearing. Those provisions could draw interest from creditors, family members, and advocates concerned with due process or abuse prevention, but the available record does not show organized opposition.