Florida Statute 736.1207
“Power of court to permit deviation”
What it means
This section sits in the charitable-trust part of the Florida Trust Code — the part that builds federal private-foundation rules, such as required distributions and bans on self-dealing, into trust instruments. Section 736.1207 keeps a safety valve open: the part does not affect a court's power to relieve a trustee, for cause shown, from restrictions on the trustee's powers and duties imposed by the governing instrument or by applicable law.
Three parties can raise it: the trustee, the Attorney General, or an affected beneficiary — with notice to the affected parties. The Attorney General's role reflects who enforces charitable trusts when no individual beneficiary exists to sue.
- Preserves the court's power to permit deviation from restrictions placed on a charitable trustee by the governing instrument or applicable law.
- Relief requires cause shown and notice to the affected parties.
- Standing belongs to the trustee, the Attorney General, or an affected beneficiary.
- Lives in Part XII of the Trust Code — the provisions applying federal private-foundation rules to Florida charitable trusts.
How it plays out
Charitable trusts outlive their assumptions — a named charity dissolves, a restriction written for old tax law stops making sense, an administrative term becomes unworkable. When that happens we look at the deviation toolkit as a whole: judicial modification under §736.04113, cy pres under §736.0413, and, for the private-foundation provisions, §736.1207. The practical difference here is the Attorney General: in charitable matters that office has a seat at the table, and we account for it in every petition.
