What is Trust & Estate Administration?
The average person has had little experience dealing with Estate & Trust Administration and often has many questions upon becoming a trustee for the first time.
This article will provide a general overview of how trusts work and the duties and responsibilities of the person that is acting as Trustee of a trust or Administrator of an estate after a person dies.
A Successor Trustee is a person identified in a revocable trust that is to take over as trustee after the maker of the trust passes away. The Successor Trustee is charged with carrying out the terms of the trust and following California law during the trust administration process.
Estate Administration is created out of the need to administer the assets of a decedent that did not have the assets registered in the name of a trust. This happens when the decedent had a will (or did not have a will) and owned valuable assets that now need to be distributed to the rightful beneficiaries.
Through our experience in helping people administer trusts and estates, we have found that many individuals have unreasonable expectations concerning the way living trusts operate following a death. It is true that a living trust in many cases drastically reduces the costs and delays involved in passing on assets at death. A living trust accomplishes this feat by avoiding probate, which is a court case where a judge supervises most actions that take place in the administration of an estate.
Administration of the Family Trust
After the Settlor’s death, the Trust continues as a management and distribution vehicle that will exist only as long as is necessary to identify and collect trust assets, pay debts and taxes, and distribute the trust assets to the beneficiaries (or in further trust, depending on the terms of the Trust).
Do you have questions about Trust & Estate Administration?
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