Irrevocable Trusts

[MichaelQuestion]

Tranqulity,

"Something like:
All the money goes to son who is to be the sole trustee and is entitled to all needed for his health, education, maintenance and support during his life from either the income or the corpus of irrevocable trust B. If the corpus is not expended during the life of son, the residual goes to my worthless nephew, Buster."

So if I understand this correctly... if there is more than one beneficiary, then a beneficiary can be a trustee?

 

[tranquility]

It is only when the full legal ownership and the full beneficial ownership comes into the same hands where there is a problem with Merger.

So, if there are other beneficiaries, one can be the trustee as well. (In fact, that's how it is usually done.) There can be additional fights over fiduciary responsibilities and, certainly, a trustee is more likely to err if they gain some direct benefit from conditions, but it would not be a legal problem.