20 Pa.C.S. Ch. 87

in effect

20 Pa.C.S. § 8701 Existing trusts may continue for term necessary to accomplish purpose.

Any trust created prior to January 1, 1948, primarily for the benefit of employees, their families or appointees, under any stock, bonus, pension, disability, death benefit, profit sharing or other employee-benefit plan, to which contributions are made by the employer or employees or both for the purpose of distributing to or for the benefit of the employees, their families, or appointees, the earnings or the principal, or both earnings and principal of the fund held in trust, may continue in perpetuity, or for such time as may be necessary to accomplish the purpose for which it was created, and shall not be invalid as violating any statute or rule of law against perpetuities, or against accumulations or concerning the suspension of the power of alienation of the title to property.

20 Pa.C.S. § 8702 Combining trusts.

Whenever two or more trusts heretofore have been or hereafter shall be created primarily for the benefit of the employees of the same employer or their families or appointees under any stock, bonus, pension, disability, death benefit, profit sharing or other employee-benefit plan or plans and the court of common pleas having jurisdiction over any one of such trusts, upon the application of the employer who established such trusts, any trustee thereof or any other party in interest, shall find that such trusts can be more effectively administered if they are combined, the court, in its discretion, after such notice to parties in interest as the court shall direct, may order that they be combined into one trust, which may be one of such existing trusts, in the manner and to the extent that the court shall approve, but not so as to violate any express provision to the contrary in any conveyance creating any of the trusts so combined.

20 Pa.C.S. § 8703 Transfer of assets to corporate trustee; investments; common trust funds.

The trustee or trustees of any employee-benefit plan, such as a pension, welfare, profit sharing, share, purchase, or other plan, may transfer any part of the property and assets of the plan, in trust, to a corporate trustee which shall be a bank and trust company or trust company, incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania, or a national banking association, having fiduciary powers and having its principal office in Pennsylvania, and may authorize such corporate trustee to invest and reinvest such property and assets subject to the same powers, restrictions and obligations with respect to investment and reinvestment of such property and assets as are applicable to the trustee or trustees making such transfer, and to contribute such property and assets to any common trust fund which the transferee may be otherwise authorized to maintain and to pay over the net income therefrom at such intervals as may be agreed: Provided, however, That such transfer in trust may be at any time revoked by action of the trustee or trustees so making transfer.

20 Pa.C.S. § 8704 Payments upon employee's death; third party claims.

The trustee, custodian or committee charged with the responsibility of disbursing funds from any trust, custodial account, annuity or other funding arrangement under a pension, profit sharing, stock bonus, deferred compensation, disability, death benefit or other plan established by an employer for the benefit of its employees and their beneficiaries may pay funds upon the death of an employee or former employee to the beneficiaries entitled thereto under the plan or under a designation by the employee made pursuant to the plan and by making such payment shall be released from all claims by third parties. Pending such payment, such trustee, custodian or committee shall not be required to recognize any claim by third parties or to withhold disbursement pending the resolution of such claims, in the absence of an appropriate court order directed to it restraining such disbursement until further order of such court or instructing it to make disbursement of the account as provided in the order. Any person to whom payment is made shall be answerable therefor to anyone prejudiced thereby.

Source: Open US Law by Vaquill AI (CC BY 4.0)URL: https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=20Fetched: 10/16/2026