El texto completo de esta guía está en inglés; el resumen anterior está en su idioma. Los resúmenes de las leyes y el inglés siguen siendo la fuente de referencia.
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Accepting the office
A person designated as trustee becomes trustee by accepting. G.L. c. 203E, § 701(a) provides that a designated trustee accepts by substantially complying with a method of acceptance the terms of the trust provide or — where the terms provide none, or the method is not expressly made exclusive — by accepting delivery of the trust property, exercising powers or performing duties as trustee, or otherwise indicating acceptance of the trusteeship. A designated trustee who does not accept within a reasonable time after knowing of the designation is deemed to have rejected the trusteeship (§ 701(b)).
Without accepting, a designated trustee may act to preserve the trust property — if, within a reasonable time after acting, the person sends a rejection of the trusteeship to the settlor or, where the settlor is dead or lacks capacity, to a qualified beneficiary — and may inspect or investigate the property to determine potential liability under environmental or other law or for any other purpose (G.L. c. 203E, § 701(c)). The acceptance date is one of the two dates the notice counts from (§ 813(b)).
The duties that apply from the first day
G.L. c. 203E, § 801 provides that, upon acceptance of a trusteeship, the trustee administers the trust in good faith, in accordance with its terms and purposes and the interests of the beneficiaries, and in accordance with the Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code. The duties that follow are the familiar ones in Massachusetts's words: loyalty (§ 802), impartiality among two or more beneficiaries (§ 803), prudent administration with reasonable care, skill and caution (§ 804), reasonable steps to take control of and protect the trust property (§ 809), adequate records and separate property (§ 810), reasonable steps to compel a former trustee or other person to deliver trust property and to redress a former trustee's breach of trust known to the trustee (§ 812), and a review of the assets within a reasonable time after accepting under the Massachusetts Prudent Investor Act (G.L. c. 203C, § 5).
One notice, 30 days after the later of two dates
Massachusetts's trust code provides one notice at the outset. G.L. c. 203E, § 813(b) provides that within 30 days after the acceptance of the trust or the trust's becoming irrevocable, whichever is later, the trustee informs the qualified beneficiaries, in writing, of the trustee's name and address, delivered or sent by ordinary first-class mail. The qualified beneficiaries are the beneficiaries who, on the date their qualification is determined, are distributees or permissible distributees of trust income or principal, or would be if the trust terminated on that date (§ 103); a beneficiary who has sent the trustee a request for notice also receives it (§ 110(a)). The 30 days run from the later of the two events themselves — the statute does not count from the trustee's knowledge of either — and the statute asks for the trustee's name and address only.
The duty is not among the ten rules the terms of a trust cannot override (G.L. c. 203E, § 105(b)), so the instrument may vary it; and while a trust is revocable and the settlor has capacity to revoke it, the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor (§ 603(a)). Who is a qualified beneficiary on a particular day, and whether the instrument varies the duty, are questions of the instrument's words and the family's facts — the kind a licensed Massachusetts attorney of your choosing answers.
The estate beside the trust
A revocable trust rarely holds everything. Property left outside it passes by will or, without one, by intestacy (G.L. c. 190B, §§ 2-102, 2-103), by beneficiary designation or by survivorship. Where an estate is opened, the personal representative prepares an inventory of the decedent's property within 3 months after appointment (§ 3-706). A personal representative answers a creditor's action only if it is commenced within 1 year after the date of death (§ 3-803(a)), and a trustee of a trust whose assets are subject as a matter of substantive law to the decedent's creditors answers only an action commenced against the trustee or the personal representative within the same time and in the same manner (§ 3-803(b)).
The Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code provides that after the settlor's death, and subject to the settlor's right to direct the source from which liabilities will be paid, the property of a trust that was revocable at the death is subject to the settlor's creditors, the expenses of the funeral and disposal of remains and the statutory allowances to a surviving spouse and children, to the extent the probate estate is inadequate (G.L. c. 203E, § 505(a)(3)); whether and how far a particular trust answers is a question for a licensed Massachusetts attorney of your choosing. For a death on or after January 1, 2023, no Massachusetts estate tax is payable where the federal taxable estate is not more than $2,000,000 (G.L. c. 65C, § 2A(g)); where the estate is liable for any tax, the executor makes the return within nine months after the death (G.L. c. 62C, § 17), and a tax not paid when due is the personal liability of a trustee who receives, or has on the date of death, property included in the Massachusetts gross estate, to the extent of its value at the death (G.L. c. 65C, § 14).
Las leyes, textualmente
Limitations on presentation of claims
G.L. c. 190B, § 3-803 ↗Explicación clara y sencilla; el texto literal del estatuto aún no está atestiguado en nuestra biblioteca. Consulte el estatuto oficial en el enlace de arriba.
Accepting or declining trusteeship
G.L. c. 203E, § 701 ↗Explicación clara y sencilla; el texto literal del estatuto aún no está atestiguado en nuestra biblioteca. Consulte el estatuto oficial en el enlace de arriba.
Duty to administer trust
G.L. c. 203E, § 801 ↗Explicación clara y sencilla; el texto literal del estatuto aún no está atestiguado en nuestra biblioteca. Consulte el estatuto oficial en el enlace de arriba.
Duty to inform and report
G.L. c. 203E, § 813 ↗Explicación clara y sencilla; el texto literal del estatuto aún no está atestiguado en nuestra biblioteca. Consulte el estatuto oficial en el enlace de arriba.
Preguntas frecuentes
How does a Massachusetts successor trustee accept the office?
By substantially complying with a method of acceptance the terms of the trust provide or, where they provide none or the method is not expressly exclusive, by accepting delivery of the trust property, exercising powers or performing duties as trustee, or otherwise indicating acceptance (G.L. c. 203E, § 701(a)). A designated trustee who does not accept within a reasonable time after knowing of the designation is deemed to have rejected the trusteeship (§ 701(b)).
Is there a notice after a Massachusetts trustee accepts?
One. Within 30 days after the acceptance of the trust or the trust's becoming irrevocable, whichever is later, the trustee informs the qualified beneficiaries in writing of the trustee's name and address, delivered or sent by ordinary first-class mail (G.L. c. 203E, § 813(b)). The statute asks for no separate notice of the trust's existence and no telephone number.
Does a Massachusetts successor trustee need a court order to act?
Generally no: a trust is not subject to continuing judicial supervision unless the court orders it (G.L. c. 203E, § 201(b)), and the court intervenes to the extent an interested person invokes its jurisdiction or as provided by law (§ 201(a)). A trustee of a testamentary trust furnishes a bond, with a surety unless the terms waive it or the Probate and Family Court finds it not necessary (§ 702). Instead of a copy of the trust instrument, a trustee may furnish a person other than a beneficiary — a bank, for instance — a certification of trust (§ 1013(a)).
Lecturas relacionadas
El Centro de Aprendizaje es información general sobre la ley de Massachusetts — no es asesoría legal ni sustituye el consejo de un abogado de Massachusetts con licencia sobre sus hechos específicos. TrusteeClear es software, no un bufete.