2015 West Virginia Code
CHAPTER 44D. UNIFORM TRUST CODE
ARTICLE 4. CREATION, VALIDITY, MODIFICATION AND TERMINATION OF TRUST.
§44D-4-402. Requirement for creation.

(a) Except as created by an order of the court, a trust is created only if:

(1) The grantor has capacity to create a trust;

(2) The grantor indicates an intention, in writing, to create the trust;

(3) The trust has a definite beneficiary or is:

(A) A charitable trust;

(B) A trust for the care of an animal, as provided in section four hundred eight of this article; or

(C) A trust for a noncharitable purpose, as provided in section four hundred nine, article four of this chapter;

(4) The trustee has duties to perform; and

(5) The same person is not the sole trustee and sole beneficiary.

(b) A beneficiary is definite if the beneficiary can be ascertained now or in the future, subject to any applicable rule against perpetuities.

(c) A power in a trustee to select a beneficiary from an indefinite class is valid. If the power is not exercised within a reasonable time, the power fails and the property subject to the power passes to the persons who would have taken the property had the power not been conferred.

(d) Notwithstanding the foregoing:

(1) In accordance with the provisions of section eight, article three of chapter forty-one of this code, a trust is valid regardless of the existence, value or character of the corpus of the trust.

(2) The grantor need not have capacity to create a trust if the trust is created in writing during the grantor's lifetime by the grantor's agent acting in accordance with authority granted under a durable power of attorney which expressly authorizes the agent to create a trust on the grantor's behalf.

(e) A trust is not invalid or terminated, and title to trust assets is not merged, because the trustee or trustees are the same person or persons as the beneficiaries of the trust.