Frye v. Kimball, No. W2013-00636-COA-R3-CV, 2014 Tenn. App. LEXIS 57 (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 6, 2014)

(a father and mother executed revocable living trusts under which they each left their estates to the survivor, for life,  with the remainder to the following: 70 percent to their son, 20 percent to their daughter, and 10 percent to their granddaughter; the mother survived the father, and she modified her trust to leave 70 percent of the residuary to the daughter, 20 percent to the son, and 10 percent to the granddaughter;  the son filed a petition to have the mother removed as trustee of the father’s trust, and, while the action was pending, the mother died, leaving the son as the successor trustee of both trusts; the son filed a second petition alleging that he had reached a settlement agreement with his mother before her death in which she revoked the amended trust and reinstated the original one; the trial court rejected the son’s petition, finding that the settlement agreement was not enforceable because it was not signed; on appeal, the court affirmed, ruling that the modified trust was not revoked; the court also ruled that the mother clearly intended her beneficiaries to take outright and free of a lifetime trust, even though “for lifetime” language was used).