Miller v. Walker

Settlor Joe Marion Beutell, Jr., created an inter vivos trust in 1988 for the immediate benefit of his daughter and her children. He died later that year, and the trust was funded with a $300,000 bequest in his will. At the time, his daughter had four living children. The issue in this case is whether the grandchildren’s rights as beneficiaries under the trust terminated when they were adopted outside the family after the trust was created and funded. Because the minor children’s rights under their grandfather’s trust vested in 1988, their subsequent adoption outside the family did not divest…