King v. Lynch (California Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District, April 10, 2012, Case No. F062232).

California Probate Code §15402 states:  “Unless the trust instrument provides otherwise, if a trust is revocable by the settlor, the settlor may modify the trust by the procedure for revocation.”  In King v. Lynch the court held that if the trust instrument is silent on modification, the trust may be modified in the same manner in which it could be revoked, either statutorily or as provided in the trust instrument.  However, as the trust provided for modification by joint execution by both settlers during the lifetime of both settlers, and as both settlers were alive at the time that only one settler signed the modifications in question although the other settler might have been mentally incompetent at the time of the proposed modifications, the modifications in question were void as they did not comply with the terms of trust which required joint execution by both settlers.