What serving as your trustee involves
What a professional
trustee does.
The fuller picture: the duties step by step, what it costs, and the words you'll run into along the way.
The duties
What a trustee does
From accepting the office through investing, taxes, and distributions, Moran Trust carries the administration, in roughly the order it unfolds.
Moran Trust formally accepts the trusteeship, then issues the notice of trust and the notice to beneficiaries that open the administration, in accordance with § 736.0813, Fla. Stat.
It marshals the trust's assets (typically investment or brokerage holdings and a cash operating account, and sometimes real property), bringing the holdings under trust control, and keeps them invested with care alongside the trust's advisors, in accordance with § 736.0814, Fla. Stat.
It ensures the trust's taxes are filed, engaging a CPA or tax attorney to file returns as needed.
Throughout, Moran Trust reports to beneficiaries and their counsel as needed (individuals, charitable organizations, and out-of-state or separately represented parties), providing formal accountings, or waivers where beneficiaries are already informed.
It makes distributions according to the trust's terms, including specific and charitable bequests. Some administrations settle within about a year; others, like a dynasty trust, stay open and are administered for as long as the trust's terms run.
Cost
No surprises.
Moran Trust's work is priced on a written schedule of fees: a fixed retainer plus set installments rather than an hourly meter, so you know what it costs going in. Any statutory trustee fee is separate from that, and Moran Trust will take or waive it as the trust calls for.
In plain language
The words you'll run into
Trust administration has its own vocabulary. Open any term for a plain-English definition.
Acceptance of Trusteeship
The formal step by which a trustee agrees to take on the office and its duties.
Notice of Trust
A filing with the court that a trust is being administered after the settlor's death.
Notice to beneficiaries
The trustee's notice to qualified beneficiaries of the trust's existence, the trustee's identity, and their right to information and accountings.
Prudent investments
The standard requiring a trustee to invest trust assets with care, skill, and caution, as a prudent investor would.
Inventory
A catalog of the trust's assets and their values as of the date the trustee takes control.
Annual accounting
A periodic report to beneficiaries showing the trust's receipts, disbursements, and holdings over the year.
Fiduciary tax return
The trust's income tax return, filed for the years the trust has reportable income.
Trustee fee
Compensation a trustee is entitled to by statute for serving; a trustee may take it or waive it.