Marriages may be made in heaven but, in the courts of the state of New York, marriages are treated as economic partnerships. There are three economic aspects to this partnership: equitable distribution, maintenance and child support. Trust law and matrimonial law intersect on all three.

Nature of Interests in Trust

As a general rule, separate property (property earned before marriage or bequeathed or given to only one party to a marriage) if kept separate and not comingled, remains non-marital property and is not subject to equitable distribution upon divorce. However, absent a valid premarital agreement, the same may not be the case for increases in value of such property, especially if increases may be attributable to the efforts of one or both parties during the marriage. This is also true for properties held in trust.

However, even if an interest in a trust is maintained separately, the non-beneficiary spouse may still have some recourse. If consistent trust distributions to the beneficiary spouse were used to support the marital lifestyle, even if such distributions are discretionary, they can be deemed a source of income to the beneficiary spouse and considered by the court when determining maintenance payments. Conversely, if a spouse seeks maintenance but is the beneficiary of a trust, income from that source may be a consideration in determining maintenance.