Named as successor trustee: what should I do now?

If you are reading this, you have probably lost someone close to you, and you may have just learned that you are the person they trusted to carry out their wishes. Please take a breath. You do not need to have every answer today, and you do not need to do this alone.

An honor, and a real responsibility

Being named successor trustee is a meaningful sign of trust. It is also a serious legal role. A trustee owes duties to every beneficiary and can be held personally responsible for mistakes, even well-intended ones. The work is often thankless: it takes time, patience and care, usually while you are grieving and looking after everyone else.

Where good intentions can go wrong

Trust administration has more pitfalls than most people expect. Formal requirements and deadlines, valuations, debts, taxes, real estate and record keeping all interact, and decisions made early can be difficult to undo. Something as natural as handing out a family keepsake, paying back a sibling or selling the house can create problems if it happens before the right steps are taken.

When family feelings run high

Most families begin with every intention of working together. Grief, money and long-held feelings can still collide, sometimes over the smallest things. The most reliable protection for you and for family relationships is an administration carried out with full transparency and in keeping with what California law requires, so every beneficiary is informed and every decision is documented.

So what should you do now?

Before distributing, selling or retitling anything, speak with an attorney experienced in trust administration. An early conversation lets your counsel understand the trust, the property and the family, and help you approach the responsibility in the right order from the beginning.

How we help

We work alongside you through the full administration, providing counsel at each stage and handling the legal work with care, so you can fulfill your role with confidence and give your family the time it needs. Meetings are available by Zoom or at our San Jose and San Francisco offices, in English, Cantonese or Mandarin. Learn more about trust administration.