Also known as: trust administrations · administering a trust · administer trust · trust management · administration of trust
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The management and oversight of trust property by a trustee in accordance with the trust terms and applicable fiduciary standards.
Tamara Tan serves as trustee of a modest family trust holding rental properties. She hires an expensive national consulting firm to review every lease even though local counsel could handle the work at far lower cost. The beneficiaries object that the fees exceed what a prudent trustee would incur given the trust's size and purposes.
Taliah Tang as trustee of an industrial-site trust allows hazardous waste to leak from trust-owned tanks. State regulators sue her personally because the leak resulted from her own failure to inspect the property. The court holds her individually liable because she was personally at fault.
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Tanya Tang as trustee signs a contract for trust repairs and discloses her fiduciary role. When the contractor is unpaid, it sues Tanya in her fiduciary capacity even though she is not personally at fault. The court permits the action to proceed against her as trustee.
Travis Tate as trustee of a charitable trust holding a historic hospital building petitions the court after the original charitable purpose becomes impossible. The court applies cy pres to redirect the property to a similar medical use while preserving the settlor's general intent.
Trevor Tate as trustee of a Delaware trust receives a beneficiary's notice of relocation to Florida. The beneficiary later sues in Florida over distributions. The court examines whether the trustee's administration activities created sufficient contacts with Florida to support personal jurisdiction.
Tori Taylor as trustee of an Oklahoma trust sells trust vehicles that later cause injury in another state. The injured party sues Taylor in the injury state. The court assesses whether the trustee's purposeful direction of trust assets into the forum satisfies due-process requirements for jurisdiction.
The interests of the beneficiaries are the beneficial interests expressly created by the written terms of the trust instrument. A trustee must measure discretionary decisions against those stated purposes rather than external policy goals or informal expectations.
A vacancy must be filled only when no trustee remains in office. If at least one cotrustee continues to serve, the remaining trustee may continue administering the trust unless the instrument requires a fixed number of trustees.
A designated trustee accepts by conduct that objectively demonstrates assumption of the role, such as exercising trustee powers over trust property or collecting compensation from trust funds.
A trustee is not personally liable on a contract properly entered in a fiduciary capacity if the trustee disclosed that capacity, unless the contract provides otherwise.
…Similarly, I believe the Court in Hanson v. Denckla , 357 U. S. 235 (1958), was influenced by the fact that trust administration has traditionally been considered a peculiarly local activity.