I cannot say why some attorneys place an environmental indemnification clause in their trusts when so many other attorneys do not. The primary purpose of the clause is to encourage a trust company or individual trustee to accept a trust appointment wherein the trust owns or will own real property that has been used as farmland, industrial or commercial property. These uses are more likely to involve the presence of substances and chemicals that could escape into the air, soil or groundwater, thereby causing a health or environmental hazard, than residential properties.
