Lucky you — you’ve been appointed trustee of a trust. It’s a great honor because it means that the person who appointed you has faith in your probity and ability to manage both financial assets and beneficiaries.
But it’s also a great responsibility. Often non-professional trustees don’t know entirely what they’re getting into when they accept the appointment.
So we’ve created a primer to assist trustees in their new role. It’s available here.
In creating our Primer on Trust Administration we’ve attempted to steer a middle course that provides the trustee with the guidance they need without overwhelming them with too much detail. It covers:
- A basic description of trusts, their functions and types of trusts.
- The role of trustees.
- How distributions should be determined.
- Investment standards.
- Whether trusts should own homes.
- Accounting requirements and best practices.
- How trusts are taxed.
- Some specific trust provisions, including powers of appointment and trust protectors
- And, finally, a list of trustee dos and don’ts.
This will not give guidance for every situation you might face as a trustee, but will provide a framework for considering most issues as they arise. If you would like to delve deeper into trusts and the trustee’s role, check out my book, The Baby Boomers Guide to Trusts: Your All-Purpose Estate Planning Tool.
For answers to specific questions, it always makes sense to consult with an experienced trust attorney.