• Supporting Our Clients and the Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
    • Skip to primary navigation
    • Skip to main content
    • Skip to primary sidebar
    • Skip to footer
    • Home
    • Our Firm
      • About Our Firm
      • Attorney and Staff Profiles
      • Communities We Serve
        • Bergen County
        • Clifton
        • Essex County
        • Hudson County
        • Hunterdon County
        • Middlesex County
          • Edison
          • Woodbridge
        • Morris County
        • Passaic County
        • Somerset County
          • Hillsborough
          • Warren
        • Sussex County
          • Franklin
        • Union County
          • Plainfield
    • Services
      • Asset & Business Planning
      • Estate And Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Services
      • Incapacity Planning
      • IRA & Retirement Planning
      • Legacy Planning Services
      • Medicaid and Elder Law
      • SECURE Act
      • Special Needs Planning
      • Trust Administration
    • Seminars
    • Resources
      • Elder Law
        • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
        • Elder Law reports
        • Elder Law Resources
          • Plainfield Elder Law
      • Estate Planning
        • Estate Planning Checkup
        • Estate Planning Definitions
        • Incapacity Planning Definitions
        • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
        • New Jersey Estate Planning Resources
        • Top 10 Estate and Legacy Planning Techniques
      • Free Estate Planning Worksheet
      • Free Seminars
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Business Succession Planning
        • Estate Planning
        • Elder Law
        • Estate Planning for Women
        • Frequently Asked Questions for Families Without an Estate Plan
        • Legacy Wealth Planning
        • LGBTQ Estate Planning
        • Medicaid
        • Trust Administration & Probate
        • Wills and Trusts
      • Newsletters
      • Pre Consultation Form
      • Probate and Trust Administration
        • Bereavement Resources
        • How to Know if You Need Extra Help With Your Grieving
        • Loss of a Loved One
        • Probate Resources
          • Hillsborough Township Probate
          • Plainfield Probate
        • The Mourner’s Bill of Rights
        • Things You Need To Do When a Loved One Passes Away With a Trust
        • Things You Need To Do When a Loved One Passes Away With a Will
        • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • Published Books
    • Reviews
      • Our Reviews
      • Review Us
    • Blog
    • Contact Us

    Augulis Law Firm

    New Jersey Estate Planning Information Center

    Connect with us today(908) 222-8803

    • Attend A Seminar
      • Attend A Webinar
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkdin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
    Committed to helping New Jersey families preserve and protect their wealth.
    Home » Estate Planning Articles » What Does It Mean To Be a Trustee?

    What Does It Mean To Be a Trustee?

    April 30, 2012

    Compliments of Our Law Firm,
    By: The American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys

    If a family member or friend has chosen you to serve as Trustee of their Living Trust, you’ve been given a great honor. It means they believe you are honest and responsible and they have a great deal of faith in your abilities and your personal integrity. It also means that you have an important, and sometimes complicated, job to do.

    Basic Duties

    While no two Trusts are exactly alike, all Trustees share the same basic obligations. A Trustee is charged with the responsibility of managing the assets that belong to the Trust. In doing this, the Trustee is required to follow the terms of the Trust document.

    Current vs. Successor Trustee

    Your obligations might begin immediately, or they may not start until some point in the future. This depends on whether the person creating the Trust – called the Trustor – has named you the current Trustee or the successor Trustee.

    Let’s imagine your father is the Trustor. It’s common for someone creating a Trust to serve as his own Trustee as long as he is alive and well, and your dad is no exception. He has chosen you as his successor Trustee, so you don’t have any obligations until your father dies, or until he suffers an illness or injury that renders him incapable of managing the Trust on his own.

    If your dad became mentally or physically incapable of serving as his own Trustee, you would step in and follow the instructions in the Trust document for having your father removed as Trustee. Normally, this means getting a physician’s statement that your father is no longer able to manage his own affairs. You would then follow the terms of the Trust to manage Trust assets for your dad’s benefit. If your father later regained the ability to serve as his own Trustee, he would have the option to once again take over that role.

    If your father died, you would need his death certificate to take over the role of Trustee.

    Administration

    As Trustee, you have the responsibility to follow the terms of the Trust document and manage the Trust assets in a prudent manner. This not only means preserving the property your father transferred into the Trust, it also means investing the Trust assets responsibly. Each state has its own standards that define what it means to invest Trust assets prudently.

    In addition to following the terms of the Trust, you as Trustee have a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of the Trust. This means you must manage the Trust in the best interests of all the beneficiaries, rather than using the assets in a way that solely benefits you.

    You’ll also need to keep up with administrative duties, such as keeping an inventory of Trust assets, keeping accurate records of transactions you make on behalf of the Trust, and filing income tax returns and, possibly, estate tax returns for the Trust.

    Distributions

    Not only are you responsible for the management of the Trust, you are also responsible for distributing the Trust assets in accordance with the terms of the Trust. Trusts vary widely when it comes to the discretion Trustees are given in making distributions. For instance, your father’s Trust document might name you and your two siblings as the sole beneficiaries of the Trust, and instruct that the Trust assets be sold and the money divided evenly among the three of you.

    On the other hand, the document might give you the discretion to distribute Trust funds to provide for the “health, education, maintenance, and support” of your siblings. This would leave you to decide how much of a distribution – and how often – is reasonable given your siblings’ circumstances.

    Just as no two Trusts are alike, no two Trustees have exactly the same responsibilities and challenges. An experienced estate planning attorney can help you understand your duties so that you can fulfill your role with confidence.

    About Alan Augulis, Estate Planning Attorney

    Mr. Augulis founded his Warren, New Jersey law firm so that he could focus his practice in the areas of advanced estate planning and tax law. Mr. Augulis has invested considerable time and energy helping to educate others on the topic of estate planning and has become a sought-after speaker in the tax and estate planning arena because of his informative and entertaining seminars.

    Primary Sidebar

    Augulis Law Firm

    Free Estate Planning Worksheet

    There's a lot that goes into setting up a comprehensive estate plan, but with our FREE worksheet, you'll be one step closer to getting yourself and your family on the path to a secure and happy future.

    • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

    Follow Us

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkdin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram

    Testimonials

    Client Review
    August 4, 2020
        

    Very happy with work. Everything explained clearly and concisely and all my questions were answered completely. Process of putting together plan and review of documents was very organized and easy to understand.

    norm

    Where we are

    Augulis Law Firm
    5 Mountain Blvd. Suite 5
    Warren Twp, NJ 07059
    Phone: (908) 222-8803
    Fax: (908) 222-8815

    See Larger Map Get Directions

    Office Hours

    Monday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
    Tuesday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
    Wednesday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
    Thursday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
    Friday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

    Map

    map

    Footer

    • Advantages of Working With Our Firm
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
    • Contact Us

    Connect with Us

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkdin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
    footer-logo

    Augulis Law Firm
    All Right Reseved.

    Attorney Advertisement

    © 2023 American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.