Sec. 45a-472. Trustee to receive proceeds of pension, retirement, death benefit and profit-sharing plans.
Sec. 45a-472. Trustee to receive proceeds of pension, retirement, death benefit
and profit-sharing plans. (a) As used in this section, "proceeds" means the proceeds
paid upon the death of any insured, employee, participant, or beneficiary under: Any
thrift plan, savings plan, pension plan, profit-sharing plan, death benefit plan, stock
bonus plan including any employee stock ownership plan; any qualified cash or deferred
arrangement which is part of a profit-sharing or stock bonus plan; any retirement plan
including a self-employed retirement plan; any individual retirement account, annuity
and bond or simplified employee pension plan; and the proceeds of any individual,
group or industrial life insurance policy, or accident and health insurance policy and
any annuity contract, endowment insurance contract or supplemental insurance contract.
(b) (1) Proceeds may be made payable to a trustee under a trust agreement or declaration of trust in existence on the date of such designation, and identified in such designation. Such proceeds shall be paid to such trustee and held and disposed of in accordance
with the terms of such trust agreement or declaration of trust, including any written
amendments thereto in existence on the date of death of the insured, employee or participant. It shall not be necessary to the validity of any such trust agreement or declaration
of trust that it have a trust corpus other than the right of the trustee as beneficiary to
receive such proceeds.
(2) Proceeds may be made payable to a trustee of a trust to be established by will.
Upon issuance of a decree qualifying a trustee so named, such proceeds shall be payable
to the trustee to be held and disposed of in accordance with the terms of such will as a
testamentary trust. A designation which in substance names as such beneficiary the
trustee under the will of the insured, employee or participant, shall be taken to refer to
the will of such person actually admitted to probate, whether executed before or after
the making of such designation.
(c) Such proceeds may be payable in more than one installment. If no qualified
trustee claims such proceeds from the insurer or other payor within eighteen months
after the death of the insured, employee or participant, or if satisfactory evidence is
furnished to the insurer or other payor within such period showing that there is or will
be no trustee to receive such proceeds, such proceeds shall be paid by the insurer or
other payor to the personal representative or assigns of the insured, employee or participant, unless otherwise provided by agreement with the insurer or other payor during the
lifetime of the insured, employee or participant.
(d) Except to the extent otherwise provided by the trust agreement, declaration of
trust or will, proceeds received by the trustee shall not be subject to the debts of the
insured, employee or participant, to any greater extent than if such proceeds were payable
to the beneficiaries named in the trust; and for all purposes, including the succession
and transfer tax, they shall not be deemed payable to or for the benefit of the estate of
the insured, employee or participant.
(e) Proceeds so held in trust may be commingled with any other assets which may
properly become part of such trust.
(f) Nothing in this section shall affect the validity of any designation made prior to
October 1, 1978, of the trustee of any trust established under a trust agreement or declaration of trust or by will.
(g) The provisions of this section shall be applicable to decedents dying on or after
October 1, 1987.
(P.A. 89-202, S. 6.)