Appeal from a decree of the Surrogate’s Court, Erie County (Barbara Howe, S.), entered March 30, 2007. The decree admitted the last will and testament of decedent to original probate and granted letters testamentary and letters of trusteeship to petitioner.
It is hereby ordered that the decree so appealed from be and the same hereby is unanimously reversed on the law without costs, probate is denied and letters testamentary and letters of trusteeship are revoked.
Turning to the merits of the decree in appeal No. 1 and the order in appeal No. 3, it is firmly established in New York that jurisdiction over the estate of a nondomiciliary should not be transferred from the testator’s domicile to New York “unless it is required by some imperative rule of law” (Parsons v Lyman, 20 NY 103, 116 [1859]). Further, Surrogate’s Court may exercise jurisdiction over a nondomiciliary decedent’s estate where, inter alia, the decedent “leaves property in the state” (SCPA 206 [1]; see also SCPA 1605 [1]). “In determining whether to accept an application for original probate of a will of a nondomiciliary which has not yet been admitted to probate in the decedent’s domicile, [a] court should examine the nature of New York’s
Here, petitioner contends that the Surrogate properly exercised jurisdiction over the estate of decedent based on the exercise in her will of certain limited powers of appointment over two trusts established by her predeceased husband for her benefit, which trusts owned property situated in New York, and based on her ownership of three JP Morgan Chase bank accounts allegedly located in New York. Contrary to petitioner’s contention, the assets of the trusts were never decedent’s property and thus are not probate assets located in New York sufficient to confer jurisdiction in New York over decedent’s estate. It is well established that the property in a trust “remain[s] the property of the donor until it absolutely vests in some person or corporation [and that] [a] donee with a power to appoint by will is a mere agent of the donor” (Matter of Walbridge, 178 Misc 32, 37 [1942]). Thus, when decedent exercised the powers of appointment afforded her by the terms of the trusts in favor of other trusts established in her will, “she was not disposing of her own assets but, by authority conferred upon her by her [husband], she was disposing of property which never lost its identity as part of [the trusts’ property]” (Matter of Baldwin, 139 NYS2d 413, 417 [1954]).
The three bank accounts are intangible personal property, and the “usual rule [with respect to such property] is that for administrative purposes they have their situs at the domicile of the owner” (Matter of MacKean, 259 App Div 728 [1940]; see Matter of Obregon, 230 AD2d 47, 51-52 [1997], affd 91 NY2d 591 [1998]). We see no compelling reason to depart from the usual rule that intangibles have their situs at the domicile of the owner, which in this case is Vermont. The three bank accounts in question constitute only 23% of decedent’s estate, and two of the three beneficiaries are nonresidents of New York.
Contrary to petitioner’s contention, the Vermont statute does not discriminate against a domiciliary of New York acting as a fiduciary (see Vt Stat Ann, tit 14, § 904; cf. Matter of Gadway, 123 AD2d 83 [1987]). In any event, we note that the Vermont Probate Court stated that it would consider petitioner for ap
