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New Hampshire · Through 2025 regular legislative session, or December 2025

RSA 564-B:1-113: Precatory Language.

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Where this section sits in the code
  1. Title LVI: PROBATE COURTS AND DECEDENTS' ESTATES
  2. Chapter ARTICLE 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS

(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) "Letter of wishes" means a record that:

(A) Is not a trust instrument;

(B) Is created by a settlor; and

(C) Contains precatory language.

(2) "Precatory language" means language that:

(A) Is not binding on any trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector;

(B) Expresses the settlor's wishes regarding the exercise of any discretionary power by a trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector; and

(C) Is not inconsistent with the terms of the trust.

(b) In exercising a discretionary power, a trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector may consider precatory language contained in the trust instrument or a letter of wishes.

(c) Precatory language does not impose any duty on any trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector, and the fact that a trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector does not exercise a discretionary power in accordance with precatory language shall not create an inference that the trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector improperly exercised the power.

(d) In determining whether a trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector exercised a discretionary power in a manner that is consistent with the settlor's intent, a court may consider precatory language contained in the trust instrument or a letter of wishes. A court may consider precatory language contained in a letter of wishes regardless of whether the trust instrument is ambiguous.

(e) Except as provided under the terms of the trust or by court order, a trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector shall not have any duty to provide any beneficiary a copy of a letter of wishes.

Collected 2026-09-05T17:07:35Z. Source file · JSON

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