Vous avez perdu un proche — et vous avez été nommé fiduciaire.

The first week: decide, secure, and find the documents

Decide whether to accept. Acceptance is by the instrument's method or by conduct — taking delivery of the property, exercising powers or performing duties — and a person may preserve the property without accepting by sending a rejection within a reasonable time after acting (R.C. 5807.01). Secure the house and the records, find the trust instrument and every amendment, the death certificate and the deeds, and list the accounts by how they are titled.

Record three dates: the date of death, the date you accepted, and the date you learned the trust had become irrevocable. Ohio counts its acceptance notice from the second and its existence notice from the third — the trustee's knowledge, which is actual knowledge, notice of the fact, or reason to know it from the circumstances (R.C. 5801.03) — never from the death itself.

The two notices: 60 days each

Within 60 days after accepting the trusteeship, the trustee notifies the current beneficiaries of the acceptance and of the trustee's name, address and telephone number (R.C. 5808.13(B)(2)). Within 60 days after the date the trustee acquires knowledge that a formerly revocable trust has become irrevocable, whether by the settlor's death or otherwise, the trustee notifies them of the trust's existence, of the identity of the settlor or settlors, of the right to request a copy of the trust instrument and of the right to a trustee's report (R.C. 5808.13(B)(3)). The current beneficiaries are the distributees and permissible distributees of income or principal on the date of determination (R.C. 5801.01(F)); a beneficiary who has sent the trustee a request for notice also receives it (R.C. 5801.09(A)), and a person who may represent and bind a beneficiary may receive it for a minor or an incapacitated person (R.C. 5803.03).

Send each notice in a manner reasonably suitable under the circumstances and likely to result in receipt — first-class mail, personal delivery, delivery to the last known residence or place of business, or a properly directed electronic message (R.C. 5801.08) — and keep the record of the method, the date and each recipient. Both notices apply to acceptances and irrevocability on or after January 1, 2007 (R.C. 5808.13(F)); the settlor may have routed a current beneficiary's notices to a beneficiary surrogate named in the instrument (R.C. 5801.04(C)).

Délais du trustee dans l'Ohio : ce que prévoient les lois

Vérifié par rapport aux Ohio Statutes le 2026-10-15. Information générale, pas un avis juridique ; le texte officiel fait foi.

Taking control and listing the assets

A trustee takes reasonable steps to take control of and protect the trust property (R.C. 5808.09) and to collect trust property held by third persons (R.C. 5808.12); keeps adequate records and keeps the property separate from the trustee's own (R.C. 5808.10); and, within a reasonable time after accepting or receiving the assets, reviews them and decides what to retain and what to dispose of under the Ohio Uniform Prudent Investor Act (R.C. 5809.04, 5809.02). A successor is not required to audit the predecessor's administration absent a direction in the instrument or actual knowledge of a breach (R.C. 5815.24(B)).

A certification of trust (R.C. 5810.13) tells a bank, a custodian or a buyer what it needs without the instrument: the trust's existence and the date of its instrument, the settlor, the currently acting trustee and address, the trustee's powers, revocability and how cotrustees sign — signed by any trustee. A transfer on death or payable on death designation naming a trustee passes to the trustee serving at the time (R.C. 5810.14(B)).

Creditors, the estate, and the periods

Ohio gives a trustee no creditor procedure. Every claim against the estate is presented within six months after the death — whether or not an executor or administrator is appointed or the estate is released from administration — in a writing to the fiduciary or the attorney of record, or to the probate court with the case number; a claim not so presented is forever barred as to everyone, including devisees and distributees, except contingent claims (R.C. 2117.06(B), (C)). The fiduciary allows or rejects a claim within thirty days of presentation (R.C. 2117.06(D)). Where the decedent or the decedent's spouse received Medicaid, the Medicaid estate recovery notice form goes to the program within thirty days of the letters or the release application, and the program's claim follows within the later of ninety days or one year after the death (R.C. 2117.061).

The Ohio Trust Code provides that during the settlor's lifetime the property of a revocable trust is subject to the settlor's creditors (R.C. 5805.06(A)(1)); it has no clause on the trust's liability for the deceased settlor's debts. Whether and how the estate's creditors reach trust property, and whether a claim is timely, are questions the record informs and a licensed Ohio attorney of your choosing answers.

The surviving spouse and the family

Where an estate is opened, the probate court cites the surviving spouse to elect whether to take under the will or under R.C. 2105.06, within five months of the initial appointment; the spouse electing against the will takes not more than one-half of the net estate, or one-third where two or more children or their descendants survive, and is treated as having predeceased for the testator's inter vivos trust unless the instrument provides otherwise (R.C. 2106.01). The surviving spouse and minor children receive the $40,000 allowance for support from the estate (R.C. 2106.13), the spouse may elect to take the mansion house (R.C. 2106.10), and dower attaches to real property the deceased spouse conveyed during the marriage without the spouse's release (R.C. 2103.02). Ohio has no homestead devise rule.

The house

A house titled to the trustee passes under the trust's terms; a house in the decedent's name passes by will or intestacy through the probate court (R.C. 2105.06), by survivorship, or under a recorded transfer on death designation affidavit (R.C. 5302.22). When the trustee conveys real property, a memorandum of trust executed and acknowledged by the trustee — the trustee's name and address, the trust's date and its powers over real property — is of record with the county recorder (R.C. 5301.255). Whether a property-tax reduction continues is a county auditor's question the trustee asks before the next tax bill.

The report, the contest window, and distribution

Once the trust is irrevocable, the trustee sends the current beneficiaries, and other beneficiaries who request it, at least annually and at the termination, a report of the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, including the source and amount of the trustee's compensation, a listing of the assets and, if feasible, their market values (R.C. 5808.13(C)); a beneficiary may waive the report and withdraw the waiver (R.C. 5808.13(D)).

A contest of a trust made irrevocable by the settlor's death is commenced by the earlier of two years after the death or six months after the trustee sends the person the instrument with a notice of the trust's existence, the trustee's name and address and the time allowed (R.C. 5806.04(A)). The trustee may distribute under the terms without liability unless it has actual knowledge of a pending contest or a potential contestant's written notification is followed by a filing within ninety days (R.C. 5806.04(B)); a beneficiary returns a distribution exceeding the entitlement if the trust is later held invalid (R.C. 5806.04(C)). On a termination the trustee distributes expeditiously, subject to a reasonable reserve for debts, expenses and taxes (R.C. 5808.17(B)). A report that adequately discloses a potential claim starts a two-year limitation period for that beneficiary (R.C. 5810.05).

When a licensed Ohio attorney is the right next call

TrusteeClear organizes the record, shows the statute's clocks from the dates you record and prepares the two notices and the certification of trust from your own entries; it does not decide who is a current beneficiary, whether the instrument names a surrogate, whether a claim reaches the trust, whether a contest has merit or whether a distribution is protected. A licensed Ohio attorney of your choosing can advise on those questions and on the estate beside the trust.