what is trust administration?
When you have a Trust as part of your estate plan, you have to choose someone to be a "Trustee". The Trustee is the person (or people) who have to follow the instructions in the Trust and do what is says. Depending on what type of Trust you have, you might be your own Trustee, or, you might have chosen someone else to be a Trustee. Trust administration refers to the actions taken by the Trustee, to do what the Trust instructs them to do.
examples of what a trustee does as part of Trust Administration:
- Gathering assets and putting them into a Trust bank account or investment account.
- Selling property
- Making investments
- Maintaining and paying bills for real estate held by the Trust
- Filing Trust tax returns and paying taxes
- Distributing funds to the beneficiaries.
- Accounting to the beneficiaries by telling them exactly what was done with the Trust funds for a set time period.
- The Trustee must act in good faith, and in the best interest of the beneficiaries.
compliance
The Trustee must keep strict compliance with the terms of Trust, as well as compliance with the applicable state and federal law. While a Trustee is generally allowed to charge a reasonable fee for the services provided, the job does come with some potential pitfalls. For example, beneficiaries might not be happy with the Trust investments, sale of property, and/or feeling like they aren't getting their "fair share".