Items Usually Allocated to Principal

National Act
Section 404
and Comments
16355
A trustee shall allocate to principal:
      (a) To the extent not allocated to income under this chapter, assets received from a transferor during the transferor's lifetime, a decedent's estate, a trust with a terminating income interest, or a payer under a contract naming the trust or its trustee as beneficiary.
      (b) Subject to any contrary rules in this article and in Articles 5.1 (commencing with Section 16350) and 5.3 (commencing with Section 16360), money or other property received from the sale, exchange, liquidation, or change in form of a principal asset, including realized profit.
      (c) Amounts recovered from third parties to reimburse the trust because of disbursements described in paragraph (7) of subdivision (a) of Section 16371 or for other reasons to the extent not based on the loss of income.
      (d) Proceeds of property taken by eminent domain, but a separate award made for the loss of income with respect to an accounting period during which a current income beneficiary had a mandatory income interest is income.
      (e) Net income received in an accounting period during which there is no beneficiary to whom a trustee may or must distribute income.
      (f) Other receipts allocated to principal as provided in Article 5.3 (commencing with Section 16360).

Receipts From Rental Property

National Act
Section 405
and Comments
16356
Unless the trustee accounts for receipts from rental property pursuant to Section 16352, the trustee shall allocate to income an amount received as rent of real or personal property, including an amount received for cancellation or renewal of a lease. An amount received as a refundable deposit, including a security deposit or a deposit that is to be applied as rent for future periods, shall be added to principal and held subject to the terms of the lease, and is not available for distribution to a beneficiary until the trustee's contractual obligations have been satisfied with respect to that amount.

Receipts of Interest; No Amortization of Premium or Discount

National Act
Section 406
and Comments
16357
      (a) An amount received as interest, whether determined at a fixed, variable, or floating rate, on an obligation to pay money to the trustee, including an amount received as consideration for prepaying principal, shall be allocated to income without any provision for amortization of premium.
      (b) An amount received from the sale, redemption, or other disposition of an obligation to pay money to the trustee more than one year after it is purchased or acquired by the trustee, including an obligation whose purchase price, or its value when it is otherwise acquired, is less than its value at maturity, shall be allocated to principal. If the obligation matures within one year after it is purchased or acquired by the trustee, an amount received in excess of its purchase price, or its value when it is otherwise acquired, shall be allocated to income.
      (c) This section does not apply to an obligation to which Section 16361, 16362, 16363, 16364, 16366, or 16367 applies.

Receipts of Life Insurance Proceeds

National Act
Section 407
and Comments
16358
      (a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b), a trustee shall allocate to principal the proceeds of a life insurance policy or other contract in which the trust or its trustee is named as beneficiary, including a contract that insures the trust or its trustee against loss for damage to, destruction of, or loss of title to a trust asset. The trustee shall allocate dividends on an insurance policy to income if the premiums on the policy are paid from income, and to principal if the premiums are paid from principal.
      (b) A trustee shall allocate to income proceeds of a contract that insures the trustee against loss of occupancy or other use by an income beneficiary, loss of income, or, subject to Section 16352, loss of profits from a business.
      (c) This section does not apply to a contract to which Section 16361 applies.

Treatment of Insubstantial Amounts

National Act
Section 408
and Comments
16360
      (a) If a trustee determines that an allocation between principal and income required by Section 16361, 16362, 16363, 16364, or 16367 is insubstantial, the trustee may allocate the entire amount to principal unless one of the circumstances described in subdivision (b) of Section 16336 applies to the allocation. This power may be exercised by a cotrustee in the circumstances described in subdivision (c) of Section 16336 and may be released for the reasons and in the manner provided in subdivisions (d) and (e) of Section 16336.
      (b) An allocation is presumed to be insubstantial in either of the following cases:
           (1) Where the amount of the allocation would increase or decrease net income in an accounting period, as determined before the allocation, by less than 10 percent.
           (2) Where the value of the asset producing the receipt for which the allocation would be made is less than 10 percent of the total value of the trust's assets at the beginning of the accounting period.
      (c) Nothing in this section imposes a duty on the trustee to make an allocation under this section, and the trustee is not liable for failure to make an allocation under this section.