La reddition de comptes de la fiducie au Tennessee

Who is owed information, and when

A trustee keeps the beneficiaries who are current mandatory or permissible distributees of trust income or principal reasonably informed about the administration of the trust and of the material facts necessary for them to protect their interests; where the trust is divided into separate shares, the duty runs to the beneficiaries of each share (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(a)(1)). The same duties run to a person who holds a power of appointment in a capacity other than a fiduciary's (§ 35-15-813(a)(3)).

While the trust is revocable and the settlor has capacity to revoke it, the beneficiaries' rights are subject to the settlor's control and the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-603(a)); the information duty begins in earnest at the settlor's death or incapacity. The duties of § 35-15-813 do not reach a trust that became irrevocable before July 1, 2004 (§ 35-15-813(f)).

No periodic report by statute — and what the instrument may ask

The code sets no annual or other periodic report and no statutory format. What it sets is a standard — reasonably informed, in a reasonable time — and a consequence: a report that adequately discloses the facts starts a short limitation period, and one that does not leaves the longer period running (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(a), (c)). The terms of the trust may ask for more — an annual account, a statement to each beneficiary, a report to a trust protector — and a written direction of a living settlor, a trust advisor or a trust protector may change the information duties (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(e)).

Many Tennessee trustees send a report every year anyway, because the record is the trustee's protection. A report that shows each receipt and disbursement, each sale and each distribution, the fees and the assets on hand gives the beneficiaries what they need and starts the one-year period on what it discloses.

The records that make it possible

A trustee keeps adequate records of the administration of the trust, keeps the trust property separate from the trustee's own, and causes the trust property to be designated so that the trust's interest appears in the records of a third party (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-810). Every answer to a beneficiary and every report rests on that record:

• The inventory at the start: each asset, its value at the date of death or of the trustee's acceptance, and how it is titled.
• Each receipt and disbursement, with its date, its source or payee, and its character as income or principal.
• Each sale and purchase, with the price, the costs and the gain or loss.
• Each distribution, with the beneficiary, the amount and the terms or the standard it was made under.
• The trustee's compensation and the fees paid to agents and advisers (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 35-15-708, 35-15-807).
• The statements, the closing values and the liabilities at the end of each period.

What a useful report shows

Because the one-year period runs only from information that adequately disclosed the facts, the question is not whether a report was sent but what it showed. Facts indicate a potential claim if they give the beneficiary or the representative enough to know of it, to be presumed to know of it, or to know that a further inquiry is needed (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(b)). A statement of balances alone rarely does that; a report that schedules the transactions does.

The statute's own model is the discharge statement of § 35-15-817(c): the trust's assets and liabilities at fair market value as of a date within 30 days, and the receipts and disbursements with their sources and payees for a period of up to three years, with the fees that remain. A periodic report built the same way — opening balance, receipts, disbursements, gains and losses, distributions, fees, closing balance — reads as one continuous record from the first report to the last.

Income and principal, and the optional notice

A trust that pays income to one beneficiary and principal to another depends on the allocation between them, which Tennessee's principal and income chapter governs. For a decision under that chapter — a single action, a course of action or a decision not to act — a trustee may, but need not, mail a notice of proposed action to the adult beneficiaries entitled to income or to principal on a termination, stating the action, the reasons, a contact and an objection period of at least 60 days (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-6-105(a), (b), (d)).

A beneficiary who does not mail a written objection within the period cannot hold the trustee liable for the action, and if no beneficiary entitled to notice objects, no current or future beneficiary can; a timely objection sends the question to the court, where the objecting beneficiary carries the burden (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-6-105(f), (g)).

A request, and the response

Unless unreasonable under the circumstances, a trustee responds in a reasonable amount of time to a qualified beneficiary's request for information related to the administration of the trust, and the qualified beneficiary reimburses the trustee's reasonable expenses of responding (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(a)(2)). The trustee may require a confidentiality agreement before releasing information about an asset whose terms restrict disclosure (§ 35-15-813(g)). Who is a qualified beneficiary on a date — and that no ultimate beneficiary is one (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-103(25)) — is a question for a licensed Tennessee attorney of your choosing.

The waiver, the representative and the written direction

Any beneficiary may waive the right to a report or other information and may withdraw the waiver as to the future (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(d)); a settlor may designate in the instrument, or in a writing delivered to the trustee, a representative to receive the information in a beneficiary's place, and the terms of the trust, or a written direction of a living settlor, trust advisor or trust protector, may change the information duties — a settlor's direction ending at death or incapacity (§ 35-15-813(e)). Representation under the code's rules carries notice to a represented beneficiary (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-301).

The report that starts the one-year rule, and electronic access

A beneficiary may not commence a proceeding against a trustee for breach of trust more than one year after the earlier of the date the beneficiary, or a representative of the beneficiary, was sent information that adequately disclosed facts indicating the existence of a potential claim for breach of trust, or the date the beneficiary or representative possessed actual knowledge of those facts (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(a)). Where that rule does not apply, a proceeding is commenced within three years after the earliest of the trustee's removal, resignation or death, the termination of the beneficiary's interest, or the termination of the trust (§ 35-15-1005(c)).

A person who consented in a record to receive information electronically, without revoking the consent, is deemed to have actual knowledge of the information accessible that way, where the means of access were provided in the record or the access was actually used (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(f)). Notice and documents may be sent by the methods the code allows (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-109); keep the proof of what was sent, when, and to whom. A report meant to start the period is a document a licensed Tennessee attorney of your choosing prepares.

Délais du trustee au Tennessee : ce que prévoient les lois

Vérifié par rapport aux Tennessee Statutes le 2026-10-28. Information générale, pas un avis juridique ; le texte officiel fait foi.

The discharge notice

On a termination, a partial termination, a resignation or a removal, the trustee may give the notice of Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-817(c) — to the living grantor, each qualified beneficiary or conflict-free representative, every other serving trustee, trust advisor and trust protector — with a statement of the trust's assets and liabilities at fair market value dated within 30 days, the receipts and disbursements with their sources and payees for a period of at most three years, the remaining fees and the statutory warning. A recipient who does not deliver a specific written objection within 45 days after receipt, presumed five business days after mailing, is barred from the claims the section names (§ 35-15-817(f), (k)), and a compliant notice with no timely objection has the preclusive effect Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(e) states.

The court's accounting, and the estate's

On petition after a resignation, removal or termination, the court may order a final accounting (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-205), and a matter covered by a final accounting the court approves cannot be raised against the trustee afterward (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(e)); a trust is otherwise not under continuing judicial supervision (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-201(b)). A departing trustee may ask the court to approve its accountings and for a release and discharge before delivering the property (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-707(c)). Where an estate is open beside the trust, the personal representative's accounting within fifteen months and annually, or the status report where accountings are waived (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-601), is the estate's, never the trustee's.

The mistakes reports expose

The same problems surface when a beneficiary finally reads the numbers.

• Trust money deposited to the trustee's own account, even briefly (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-810).
• A report of balances with no schedule of what happened, which may not start the one-year period (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(a), (b)).
• Income and principal never separated, in a trust that pays them to different people.
• Compensation taken without a record of how it was figured (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-708).
• A distribution with no note of the standard or the terms it was made under (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-814).
• A request answered months late, or not at all (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(a)(2)).

When a licensed Tennessee attorney is the right next call

A report meant to start the one-year period, a discharge notice, an objection to either, a petition for a court-approved final accounting, a beneficiary who disputes an allocation between income and principal — each has a legal effect the trustee should not guess at. TrusteeClear organizes the record the report is built from; the documents with legal effect belong to a licensed Tennessee attorney of the trustee's choosing.