Irrevocable trust

Where the statute uses it: Minn. Stat. § 501C.0411

What it means

The word is defined by subtraction. Minnesota’s definitions section, § 501C.0103, defines “revocable” at paragraph (n) and never defines “irrevocable” at all. A trust is irrevocable when the settlor cannot revoke or amend it — which, under § 501C.0602(a), is what a Minnesota trust is unless its terms expressly say otherwise.

Irrevocable does not mean unchangeable, and the chapter says so in its own numbering: an entire run of sections beginning at § 501C.0411 exists to modify or terminate trusts that no one can revoke. Paragraph (a) of that section opens:

A noncharitable irrevocable trust may be modified or terminated upon consent of the settlor and all beneficiaries, even if the modification or termination is inconsistent with a material purpose of the trust.

A second sentence follows in the same paragraph, on when an agent, conservator, or guardian may exercise the settlor’s power to consent.

Where the settlor is gone or will not consent, paragraph (b) is the next route: all beneficiaries may consent to terminate if the court concludes continuance is not necessary to achieve any material purpose, or to modify if the court concludes modification is not inconsistent with a material purpose. Paragraph (e) covers holdouts. Section 501C.0412 adds modification or termination for circumstances the settlor did not anticipate.

Where the word shows up

In the trust instrument, usually in a single clause declaring the trust irrevocable. In tax and benefits planning, where the point of the arrangement is the settlor’s loss of control rather than the paperwork.

Irrevocable is sold as a wall. In Minnesota it is a door with a specific set of keys, and § 501C.0411(c) says the court is not precluded from modifying or terminating a trust because the instrument contains spendthrift provisions.