§ 1509 Power over lifetime trusts

This rule explains what power a surrogate's court judge has over a living trust, also called a lifetime trust. A living trust is set up while a person is still alive, unlike a trust created through a will after someone dies.

The rule says the surrogate's court judge has the same power over the trust and the person managing it (the trustee) that a State Supreme Court judge would have. This means if your case involving a living trust ends up in surrogate's court, the judge there can handle it just as fully as a Supreme Court judge could.

The only exception is if another part of this same law says something different. In that case, the other rule would take priority. For most people, this means you do not lose any legal options just because your trust case is being handled in surrogate's court instead of Supreme Court.