7.1 In General

A spendthrift trust may be created when the creator of a trust manifests the intention (expressly or by implication) that the beneficiaries receive an equitable interest in the trust free of the claims of their creditors. Cherbonnier v. Bussey, 92 Md. 413, 48 A. 923 (1901). No specific language is needed to create a spendthrift trust. The earliest Maryland case, for example, determined that the direction that the trustee make payments “into his (the beneficiary’s) hands, and not into another, whether claiming by his authority or otherwise” was an expressed manifestation of such an intent. Smith v. Towers, 69 Md. 77, 15 A. 92, 93 (1888). Other manifestations of an intention to create a spendthrift trust are more elaborate:

“No interest of any beneficiary of this Will or any rust [sic] created thereby shall be assignable in anticipation of payment thereof in whole or in party by the voluntary or involuntary acts of any such beneficiary or by operation of law. Neither the corpus of any trust created hereby, nor the income resulting therefrom, while in the hands of my fiduciaries, shall be subject to any conveyance, transfer, or assignment, or be pledged as security for any debt or obligation of any beneficiary thereof, and the same shall not be subject to any claim of any creditor of any such beneficiary through legal process or otherwise. Any such attempted sale, anticipation, or pledge of any of the funds or property held in any such trust or will, or the income therefrom, by any beneficiary shall be null and void, and shall not be recognized by my fiduciaries.”

DuVall v. McGee, 375 Md. 476 (2003), n.5.