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Prob. Code, § 15800 · Chapter 2. Beneficiaries

Prob. Code, § 15800

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) Except to the extent that the trust instrument otherwise provides or where the joint action of the settlor and all beneficiaries is required, during the time that a trust is revocable and at least one person holding the power to revoke the trust, in whole or in part, is competent, the following shall apply:

(1) The person holding the power to revoke, and not the beneficiary, has the rights afforded beneficiaries under this division.

(2) The duties of the trustee are owed to the person holding the power to revoke.

(b) Except to the extent that the trust instrument otherwise provides or where the joint action of the settlor and all beneficiaries is required, if, during the time that a trust is revocable, no person holding the power to revoke the trust, in whole or in part, is competent, the following shall apply:

(1) Within 60 days of receiving information establishing the incompetency of the last person holding the power to revoke the trust, the trustee shall provide notice of the application of this subdivision and a true and complete copy of the trust instrument and any amendments to each beneficiary to whom the trustee would be required or authorized to distribute income or principal if the settlor had died as of the date of receipt of the information. If the trust has been completely restated, the trustee need not include the trust instrument or amendments superseded by the last restatement.

(2) The duties of the trustee to account at least annually or provide information requested under Section 16061 shall be owed to each beneficiary to whom the trustee would be required or authorized to distribute income or principal if the settlor had died during the account period or the period relating to the administration of the trust relevant to the report, as applicable.

(3) A beneficiary whose interest is conditional on some factor not yet in existence or not yet determinable shall not be considered a beneficiary for purposes of this section, unless the trustee, in the trustee’s discretion, believes it is likely that the condition or conditions will be satisfied at the time of the settlor’s death.

(4) If the interest of a beneficiary fails because a condition to receiving that interest has not been satisfied or the trustee does not believe that the condition will be satisfied at the time of the settlor’s death, the duties in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be owed to the beneficiary or beneficiaries who would next succeed to that interest at the relevant time or period as determined under the trust instrument, as amended and restated.

(c) Incompetency, for the purposes of subdivision (b), may be established by either of the following:

(1) The method for determining incompetency specified by the trust instrument, as amended or restated.

(2) A judicial determination of incompetency.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 420, Sec. 42. (AB 2960) Effective January 1, 2023.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=15800.
Text hash
sha256 8c96b1b4a7c400463569220ced7b00efeb82a01cc63625f98a5c8d8b02881abc
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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