Bill > HB88

This bill establishes a legal framework for creating community property trusts in New Hampshire, allowing married couples to voluntarily convert their property into a special type of trust where assets are considered jointly owned. Under the proposed law, a community property trust must be expressly declared as such, signed by both spouses, include a specific warning statement, and have at least one qualified trustee (who can be either a state resident or an authorized financial company). The trust allows spouses to agree on how property will be managed, controlled, and distributed in various scenarios like divorce or death, with all property in the trust considered community property during the marriage. Importantly, spouses can transmute their individual property into community property by transferring it to such a trust, and upon dissolution of marriage, the trust will typically be divided equally between the spouses. The trust provides flexibility in how assets can be distributed, allowing for both divided and undivided interest distributions. The bill includes provisions for how existing obligations can be satisfied using the trust assets and specifies that once property is distributed from the trust, it is no longer considered community property. The act is set to take effect on January 1, 2026, and is expected to have an indeterminable but potentially minor impact on state tax revenues.

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https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_docket.aspx?lsr=0118&sy=2025&sortoption=&txtsessionyear=2025&txtbillnumber=HB88