Checks written at the request of the decedent three days before his death and delivered by the decedent were inter vivos gifts and not testamentary, but were incomplete and invalid because the account upon which the checks were drawn had insufficient funds and none of the payees attempted to cash the checks before the decedent’s death, so the decedent was never divested of control over the funds. Summary judgment was not appropriate for other checks written by the decedent from his revocable trust before his death because there were genuine issues of material facts, and so the “interim trustee” appointed by the court was directed to evaluate the claims with respect to those checks, and the trustee appointed by the decedent would be restored once the litigation was resolved. Bartosh Trust, 2 Fid.Rep.4th 35 (Beaver O.C. 2023).

[DBE Comment: The appointment of a “temporary independent trustee” of the decedent’s revocable trust seems most unusual, because it was apparently done without any determination that the trustee appointed by the decedent had committed any breach of trust, and only done because the trustee had a conflict of interest in the dispute over the validity of the lifetime gifts. IT was not explained why the trustee appointed by the decedent could not be trusted to hold the funds of the trust during the litigation, but could be trusted with the funds following the litigation, and the direction to the “interim trustee” to “evaluate” claims of the parties makes the interim trustee more like a master than a trustee.]