NCBA Adopts Legislative Agenda; Two Items Pending

January 22, 2015

The NCBA Board of Governors, convening Jan. 22, 2015, for its winter meeting, adopted the following legislative agenda for the 2015 session of the General Assembly, with the exception of two proposals that were not adopted pending further discussion.

Please direct any questions concerning the legislative agenda to Kim Crouch, director of governmental affairs, at [email protected].

BILL TITLE	BILL DESCRIPTION
Appellate Practice: Scope of Stay on Appeal Amendment	Amends G.S. 1-294 to provide the NC Supreme Court the ability to adopt specific Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: Personal Representative/Sale of Real Property Amendments	Amends the personal representative/sale of real property statute and would solidify the testator’s intent to sell real property without a court order and eliminate the need for the personal representative to have a special court proceeding.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: NC Fiduciary Income Tax Provision Amendments	Amends NC’s fiduciary income tax provisions to clarify when a return must be filed.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: Living Probate Statute Amendments	Amends the living probate statutes and allows for a testator to petition a court to probate a will during the testator’s lifetime.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: Uniform Powers of Apportionment Act	Provides for the North Carolina version of the proposed legislation by the Uniform Laws Commission with North Carolina changes. The proposal codifies the patchwork of state court cases that constitute the law on powers of apportionment.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: Access to Digital Assets	Provides for the North Carolina version of proposed legislation by the Uniform Laws Commission with minimal North Carolina changes.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: UTC Amendment – Statute of Limitations Against Trustee	Amends the statute dealing with the limitations of actions on judicial proceedings involving trusts to allow appropriate statute of limitations to commence and then run with finality for claims of represented beneficiaries, including most minor, unborn and unascertained beneficiaries.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: UTC Amendment – Default & Mandatory Rules Governing Powerholders	Amends the Uniform Trust Code to clarify questions concerning the applicability of the default and mandatory rules to power holders.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: UTC Amendment – Decanting Provisions	Modifies North Carolina’s decanting statutes to allow a trustee to distribute trust property to a second trust established for a disabled beneficiary.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: Appointment of Standby Guardian for Disabled Person	Makes revisions to the North Carolina guardianship statute to allow a duly appointed guardian for a disabled adult to nominate a standby guardian for the adult.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: UTC Amendment – Permissible Beneficiaries for Certain Trusts	Amends the Uniform Trust Code that applies to a limited class of trusts. It would allow the grantor spouse and the spouses’ descendants to be beneficiaries and still allow the trust not to be considered a self-settled trust for the benefit of the grantor-spouse.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: UTC Amendment – Duration of Second Trust	Amends the Uniform Trust Code that adds language to describe the duration of the second trust to make the statute more specific.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: Tenancy by the Entireties Real Property in Trust	Makes technical corrections to the tenancy by the entireties statute.
Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law: UTC Amendment – Standard of Liability for Directed Trustee	Amends the Uniform Trust Code to address the inconsistency in the statutes with respect to the liability of a directed co-trustee when directed by one trustee or by the majority of co-trustees by providing a single standard of liability for a directed trustee.
Family Law: Adoption Law Changes	Makes technical changes to the adoption laws.
Government & Public Sector: Amend Lobbying Law – Water & Sewer System Attorneys	Allows attorneys who represent water and sewer authorities the same latitude as city and town attorneys as it relates to the lobbying law.
Juvenile Justice & Children’s Rights: Chapter 7B Amendments	Allows issues of prior adjudication to be more narrowly defined in juvenile context, raises the age of when a parent should be present during interrogation from 14 to 16, provides for separate and distinct hearings and clarifies that the court should determine when a juvenile should be placed into a detention facility.
Litigation: Amendment to Rule 26 of NC Rules of Civil Procedure	Provides clarity in expert discovery.
Real Property: Real Property Technical Corrections	Technical changes addressing how satisfactions are determined, issues with affidavits prepared by notaries and declarant rights as related to the condominium act.
Zoning, Planning & Land Use: Chapter 160A Amendments	Rewrites Article 19 dealing with building standards and planning statutes.