Estate Planning and Probate Law Practice Test 2026 – Comprehensive Exam Prep

Discretionary distributions are controlled by the trustee rather than fixed by the trust terms. A sprinkling trust, also called a discretionary trust, is drafted specifically to give the trustee broad power to decide how much income to pay to each beneficiary, when to pay, and to whom, within the class of beneficiaries. This flexible, trustee-driven approach is what makes it the type designed for discretionary income distributions.

The other options don’t target this feature as clearly. A one-pot trust is mainly a pooling arrangement used to simplify administration and share assets among beneficiaries, not inherently about allocating income at the trustee’s discretion. A declaration of trust and a trust agreement are the documents that create a trust and set its terms, but they aren’t themselves defined by discretionary income distributions—the terms may or may not grant such discretion.