[§557A-502]  Disbursements from principal.  (a)  Unless otherwise governed by statutory fees or unless the instrument provides for it, a trustee shall make the following disbursements from principal:

     (1)  The remaining one-half of the disbursements described in section 557A-501(1) and (2);

     (2)  All of the trustee's compensation calculated on principal as an acceptance, distribution, or termination fee, and disbursements made to prepare property for sale;

     (3)  Payments on the principal of a trust debt;

     (4)  Expenses of a proceeding that concerns primarily principal, including a proceeding to construe the trust or to protect the trust or its property;

     (5)  Insurance premiums paid on a policy not described in section 557A-501(4) of which the trust is the owner and beneficiary;

     (6)  Estate, inheritance, and other transfer taxes, including penalties, apportioned to the trust; and

     (7)  Disbursements related to environmental matters, including reclamation, assessing environmental conditions, remedying and removing environmental contamination, monitoring remedial activities and the release of substances, preventing future releases of substances, collecting amounts from persons liable or potentially liable for the costs of those activities, penalties imposed under environmental laws, rules, or regulations and other payments made to comply with those laws, rules, or regulations, statutory or common law claims by third parties, and defending claims based on environmental matters.

     (b)  If a principal asset is encumbered with an obligation that requires income from that asset to be paid directly to the creditor, the trustee shall transfer from principal to income an amount equal to the income paid to the creditor in reduction of the obligation's principal balance. [L 2000, c 191, pt of §1]

Law Journals and Reviews

  Trustee v. Beneficiary.  15 HBJ, no. 13, at 145 (2013).