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White v. Sargent6/2/2005
ly insolvent. Thus it was proper for the trial court to order that the trust property be included in Mr. Sargent's estate and be subject to Mrs. Sargent's statutory share.
Furthermore, it makes no difference, contrary to appellants' contentions, that the corpus of the trust consisted primarily of annuities. As the guardian ad litem points out, at the time of Mr. Sargent's death, the designated beneficiary of the annuities was the trust itself. The annuities cannot simply revert to the earlier named beneficiaries, Mary and Angelique, because the act of changing the beneficiary of the trust revoked any prior beneficiary designations. Thus, if the trust is void for the reasons stated by the trial court (and we hold that it is), the property contained in the trust "may be subject to claims made by the surviving spouse under the laws regulating succession to decedents' estates," regardless of the nature of the property. Staples, 433 A.2d at 410.
V.
Our holding is twofold. First, because the designated beneficiary of the annuities was the trust, and because the trust is now a nullity, the annuities have no designated beneficiary and therefore must be deemed an asset of Mr. Sargent's estate. Second, Mrs. Sargent is entitled to claim her statutory share of Mr. Sargent's estate, including the annuities. Assuming that she makes such a claim (if she has not done so already), we leave it to the trial court, either in the instant case or in the ongoing probate proceedings, to determine the details of how the estate's assets - including the annuities - shall be distributed, making sure that Mrs. Sargent receives her full statutory share.
The trial court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Mrs. Sargent and directing the co-trustees to transfer the voided trust's assets to Mr. Sargent's estate is in all respects
Affirmed.
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