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Senate Judiciary hears S.11 to let Vermont businesses create stewardship trusts to preserve mission after sale
Summary
Sen. Chinden introduced S.11, which would authorize stewardship trusts allowing businesses to enshrine mission and values and to create a stewardship committee to enforce those terms; legislative counsel described the statutory change needed to permit trusts without an ascertainable beneficiary and noted potential legal questions about duration.
Senator Chinden introduced Senate Bill 11 on the Senate Judiciary Committee floor on the 31st, saying the measure would allow Vermont businesses to establish stewardship trusts to preserve a company’s mission, values and local commitments after a sale.
The bill would let a business create a trust “for a business purpose without a definite or definite ascertainable beneficiary,” legislative counsel Eric Fitzpatrick told the committee, adding the statutory change is needed so a trust can be enforceable when it does not name a traditional beneficiary.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Chinden, framed the measure as a low-cost option to help address what he described as a business succession crisis in which many firms — he said two-thirds nationwide are owned by baby boomers — face sales to buyers who may not share local priorities. “This bill costs nothing and other states do it,” Chinden said, and he cited Oregon’s law and Patagonia’s stewardship structure as models.
Fitzpatrick, of the Office of…
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