2007 Minnesota Statutes

525.532 DISCLAIMER OF INTERESTS PASSING BY WILL, INTESTATE SUCCESSION
OR UNDER CERTAIN POWERS OF APPOINTMENT.
    Subdivision 1. Definitions. As used in this section, unless otherwise clearly required by
the context:
(a) "Beneficiary" means and includes any person entitled, but for that person's disclaimer,
to take an interest: by intestate succession; by devise; by legacy or bequest; by succession to
a disclaimed interest by will, intestate succession or through the exercise or nonexercise of a
testamentary power of appointment; by virtue of a renunciation and election to take against a will;
as beneficiary of a testamentary trust; pursuant to the exercise or nonexercise of a testamentary
power of appointment; as donee of a power of appointment created by testamentary instrument; or
otherwise under a testamentary instrument;
(b) "Interest" means and includes the whole of any property, real or personal, legal or
equitable, or any fractional part, share or particular portion or specific assets thereof or any estate
in any such property or power to appoint, consume, apply or expend property or any other right,
power, privilege or immunity relating thereto;
(c) "Disclaimer" means a written instrument which declines, refuses, releases, renounces or
disclaims an interest which would otherwise be succeeded to by a beneficiary, which instrument
defines the nature and extent of the interest disclaimed thereby and which must be signed,
witnessed and acknowledged by the disclaimant in the manner provided for deeds of real estate.
    Subd. 2. Right to disclaim. A beneficiary may disclaim any interest in whole or in part, or
with reference to specific parts, shares or assets thereof, by filing a disclaimer in court in the
manner hereinafter provided. A guardian, executor, administrator or other personal representative
of the estate of a minor, incompetent or deceased beneficiary, if that person deems it in the best
interests of those interested in the estate of such beneficiary and of those who take the beneficiary's
interest by virtue of the disclaimer and not detrimental to the best interests of the beneficiary,
with or without an order of the probate court, may execute and file a disclaimer on behalf of the
beneficiary within the time and in the manner in which the beneficiary could disclaim if living,
of legal age and competent. A beneficiary likewise may execute and file a disclaimer by agent
or attorney so empowered.
    Subd. 3. Filing deadline. Such disclaimer shall be filed at any time after the creation of the
interest, but in all events within nine months after the death of the person by whom the interest
was created or from whom it would have been received, or, if the disclaimant is not finally
ascertained as a beneficiary or the interest has not become indefeasibly fixed both in quality and
quantity as of the death of such person, then such disclaimer shall be filed not later than nine
months after the event which would cause the disclaimant so to become finally ascertained and
the interest to become indefeasibly fixed both in quality and quantity.
    Subd. 4. Effectiveness; procedures. Such disclaimer shall be effective upon being filed in
the court in which the estate of the person by whom the interest was created or from whom it
would have been received is, or has been, administered or, if no probate administration has
been commenced, then in the court where it would be pending if commenced. A copy of the
disclaimer shall be delivered or mailed to the personal representative, trustee or other person
having legal title to, or possession of, the property in which the interest disclaimed exists, and
no such representative, trustee or person shall be liable for any otherwise proper distribution or
other disposition made without actual notice of the disclaimer. If an interest in or relating to real
estate is disclaimed, the original of the disclaimer, or a copy of the disclaimer certified as true and
complete by the court administrator of the court wherein the same has been filed, shall be filed in
the office of the county recorder or the registrar of titles, as hereinafter provided, in the county or
counties where the real estate is situated and shall constitute notice to all persons only from and
after the time of such filing. If title to such real estate has not been registered under the provisions
of chapter 508, such disclaimer or certified copy shall be filed with the county recorder. If title
to such real estate has been registered under the provisions of chapter 508, such disclaimer or
certified copy shall be filed with the registrar of titles.
    Subd. 5. Descent of disclaimed property. Unless the person by whom the interest was
created or from whom it would have been received has otherwise provided by will or other
appropriate instrument with reference to the possibility of a disclaimer by the beneficiary, the
property in which the interest disclaimed existed shall descend, be distributed or otherwise be
disposed of in the same manner as if the disclaimant had died immediately preceding the death
or other event which causes the disclaimant to become finally ascertained as a beneficiary and
the interest to become indefeasibly fixed both in quality and quantity, and, in any case, the
disclaimer shall relate for all purposes to such date, whether filed before or after such death or
other event. However, one disclaiming an interest in a nonresiduary gift, devise or bequest shall
not be excluded, unless the disclaimer so provides, from sharing in a gift, devise or bequest of
the residue even though, through lapse, such residue includes the assets disclaimed. An interest
of any nature in or to the estate of an intestate may be declined, refused or disclaimed as herein
provided without ever vesting in the disclaimant.
    Subd. 6. Limitation. The right to disclaim otherwise conferred by this section shall be
barred if the beneficiary is insolvent at the time of the event giving rise to the right to disclaim.
Any voluntary assignment or transfer of, or contract to assign or transfer, an interest in real or
personal property, or written waiver of the right to disclaim the succession to an interest in real
or personal property, by any beneficiary, or any sale or other disposition of an interest in real or
personal property pursuant to judicial process, made before the beneficiary has filed a disclaimer,
as herein provided, bars the right otherwise hereby conferred on such beneficiary to disclaim as
to such interest.
    Subd. 7. Spendthrift and similar provisions. The right to disclaim granted by this section
shall exist irrespective of any limitation imposed on the interest of the disclaimant in the nature
of an express or implied spendthrift provision or similar restriction. A disclaimer, when filed as
provided in this section, or a written waiver of the right to disclaim, shall be binding upon the
disclaimant or beneficiary so waiving and all parties thereafter claiming by, through or under
that person, except that a beneficiary so waiving may thereafter transfer, assign or release the
interest if such is not prohibited by an express or implied spendthrift provision. If an interest in
real estate is disclaimed and the disclaimer is duly filed in accordance with the provisions of
subdivision 4, the spouse of the disclaimant, if such spouse has consented to the disclaimer in
writing, shall thereupon be automatically debarred from any spouse's statutory or common law
right or estate by curtesy or in dower or otherwise in such real estate to which such spouse, except
for such disclaimer, would have been entitled.
    Subd. 8. Rights under other law. This section shall not abridge the right of any person,
apart from this section, under any existing or future statute or rule of law, to disclaim any interest
or to assign, convey, release, renounce or otherwise dispose of any interest.
    Subd. 9. Interests existing on May 22, 1965. Any interest which exists on May 22, 1965
but which has not then become indefeasibly fixed both in quality and quantity, or the taker of
which has not then become finally ascertained, may be disclaimed after May 22, 1965 in the
manner provided herein.
History: 1965 c 552 s 1; 1975 c 347 s 112,113; 1976 c 181 s 2; 1980 c 439 s 33; 1986 c
444; 1Sp1986 c 3 art 1 s 82