Trust Administration Attorney in Boca Raton, Florida

A successor trustee's duties under the Florida Trust Code

Chapter 736 of the Florida Statutes governs. The obligations are specific and enforceable.

• Serve notice of the trust's existence, the trustee's identity and the right to request a copy of the trust on qualified beneficiaries — generally within 60 days of accepting the role or of the settlor's death.
• File a notice of trust with the clerk of court in the county of the settlor's domicile, so creditors and any probate proceeding have record of it.
• Take control of and safeguard trust property, obtain valuations as of the date of death, and keep trust assets strictly separate from personal assets.
• Administer impartially in the interests of all beneficiaries, and invest prudently under the Florida Prudent Investor Rule.
• Provide qualified beneficiaries with a trust accounting that meets statutory content requirements, at least annually and on termination.
• Address the settlor's final expenses, income tax returns and any estate tax filing before distributing.
• Distribute according to the trust's terms and obtain appropriate receipts and releases at closing.

How the firm supports a trustee

Trust administration does not require a courtroom, but it does require someone who knows what the statute expects. Mr. Harris prepares and serves the statutory notices, files the notice of trust, assembles the inventory and valuations, prepares accountings in the required format, and drafts the deeds needed to sell trust real property or convey it to beneficiaries.

Where beneficiaries are anxious or hostile, communications and accountings are handled through counsel — which both satisfies your disclosure duties and keeps you from saying something in frustration that becomes evidence later.

At the end, distributions are documented with receipts and releases so the file closes cleanly and your exposure ends rather than lingering.

Trust administration compared with probate

A funded trust administration stays out of court, remains private and generally moves faster than probate. There is no creditor claim window opened by publication, no judicial supervision of routine steps and no public inventory of the decedent's assets.

It is not automatic, however. Creditors of the settlor may still reach trust assets in defined circumstances, and if any asset was left outside the trust, a probate may be required alongside the administration.

Because this office also handles probate and real estate, a partially funded trust is not a crisis — the parallel proceedings and the deeds are managed in one file rather than three.