FSU Law Professor David F. Powell was the scrivener for the Ad Hoc Trust Law Committee of the Florida Bar that drafted Florida’s new trust code.  In this month’s Florida Bar Journal he published an article entitled The New Florida Trust Code, Part 1, that provides a detailed discussion of the new trust code.  Here’s the introduction to his article:

An important event occurred this past legislative session. Ch. 736 was added to the Florida Statutes. For estate, family law, elder law, and tax practitioners; for clients, their beneficiaries, accountants, and trustees; for regulated trust companies and for Florida courts, this promises to be a big deal!

A long time in the making, new Ch. 736 and some conforming amendments made to the Probate Code and other Florida statutes are the product of a five-year effort by the Ad Hoc Trust Code Revision Committee1 to codify Florida trust law. When it takes effect, the new Florida Trust Code (FTC or the Code) will replace Florida’s existing statutory trust law, most of which is found in Ch. 737.

As will soon be apparent, the new Code contains numerous changes and additions. As a consequence, it has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2007. Between now and then, practitioners and other interested persons have a window of time in which to familiarize themselves with the new Code. This two-part article is intended to facilitate that process. Part 2 will be published in the October issue of The Florida Bar Journal.