The trust document stated that the beneficiary of a trust “shall become a Co-Trustee of his or her respective trust” upon reaching thirty years of age. By several emails sent to the trustee already serving and to the financial institution serving as custodian of the trust, a beneficiary who had reached age thirty asserted that he was a co-trustee and attempted to exercise powers as a co-trustee. Those emails “substantially complied” with the direction in the trust document that a person designated as a trustee qualify by a “written acceptance of the office.” Because the beneficiary became a trustee when he sent those emails, the purported appointment of a new co-trustee without his consent as a trustee, and an attempted change of situs, were both invalid. John P. Middleton Trust, 3 Fid.Rep.4th 46 (Montgomery O.C. 2025).

[For earlier opinions involving the same trust, see “Appeal of Emergency Trust Distribution Not Moot Because Jurisdictional Question Remained” and “Dismissal of Answer and New Matter Is Not Appealable.” For earlier opinions involving the same settlor and beneficiary and similar issues but a different trust, see “Dismissal of Answer and New Matter for Lack of Standing Is Not Appealable.”]