Le texte intégral de ce guide est en anglais ; le résumé ci-dessus est dans votre langue. Les résumés des lois et l'anglais restent la source de référence.
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Majority decision, participation required
Section 113.085 provides that cotrustees may act by majority decision, and that if a vacancy occurs the remaining cotrustees may act for the trust. The same section requires each cotrustee to participate in the performance of a trustee's function unless the cotrustee is unavailable because of absence, illness, suspension, disqualification or other temporary incapacity, or has properly delegated the function to another trustee and communicated the delegation to all cotrustees.
Participation is the duty most often neglected in a family cotrusteeship: the sibling who signs whatever the other sends is participating in form only. The instrument may change the rule — two signatures required, a particular trustee given the final word on investments — and §111.0035 gives those terms effect; where the instrument is silent, the majority acts and the minority is heard.
Dissent, and the protection it buys
Section 114.006 provides that a trustee who does not join in an action of a cotrustee is not liable for it, so long as the trustee exercised the reasonable care the section requires — and that a dissenting trustee who joins in an action at the direction of the majority, and who notified a cotrustee of the dissent in writing at or before the time of the action, is not liable for the action. The writing is the protection: a dissent voiced at the kitchen table protects no one.
The reasonable care the section asks of every cotrustee is to prevent a cotrustee from committing a serious breach of trust and to compel a cotrustee to redress one. A cotrustee who knows the other has taken trust funds, or is about to sell the homestead below value, has a duty to act — which in practice means a written objection, a demand for correction, and, failing those, a petition under §115.001 to the district court, which has jurisdiction to remove a trustee and to determine the powers, duties and liability of a trustee.
Delegation among cotrustees
A cotrustee may delegate a function to another trustee only in accordance with the terms of the trust or applicable law, and must communicate the delegation to all other cotrustees (§113.085). The Code separately requires a trustee who delegates investment and management functions to an agent to use care in selecting the agent, setting the scope and reviewing the agent's work (§117.011). A delegation that hands everything to one trustee and stops reading the statements is not a delegation the section contemplates.
Where one cotrustee is a bank or trust company and the other a family member, the instrument usually allocates the functions expressly — custody and investment to the corporate trustee, distribution decisions to the family trustee, or a directed-trust arrangement under §114.0031 in which an advisor directs and the trustee follows. Those allocations are enforceable and shape each trustee's liability; reading them is where a licensed Texas attorney earns the fee.
The record of a shared office
A cotrusteeship generates documents a sole trustee never needs: minutes or written consents for decisions, the written dissents §114.006 protects, the communicated delegations §113.085 requires, and a shared ledger so that one trustee's accounting is every trustee's accounting under §113.152. Each cotrustee is entitled to the trust's records and owes the beneficiaries the same duty to inform.
When cotrustees cannot agree and the instrument gives no tie-breaker, §115.001 gives the district court jurisdiction to instruct the trustees or to determine a question arising in the administration; §113.082 allows the court to remove a trustee on the grounds it lists. TrusteeClear's record is built for the shared office: every entry carries who made it and who approved it, so the §114.006 protection can be shown.
Les textes de loi, mot pour mot
Exercise of powers by multiple trustees
§ PR.113.085 ↗Explication claire et simple ; le texte intégral de la loi n'est pas encore attesté dans notre bibliothèque. Consultez la loi officielle via le lien ci-dessus.
Liability of cotrustees for acts of other cotrustees
§ PR.114.006 ↗Explication claire et simple ; le texte intégral de la loi n'est pas encore attesté dans notre bibliothèque. Consultez la loi officielle via le lien ci-dessus.
Jurisdiction
§ PR.115.001 ↗Explication claire et simple ; le texte intégral de la loi n'est pas encore attesté dans notre bibliothèque. Consultez la loi officielle via le lien ci-dessus.
Questions fréquentes
Do all Texas co-trustees have to agree?
No — unless the instrument requires unanimity, cotrustees may act by majority decision (§113.085). Every cotrustee must participate in the function, and a trustee who disagrees protects himself by notifying a cotrustee of the dissent in writing at or before the action (§114.006).
Is a Texas co-trustee liable for what the other trustee does?
A trustee who does not join in a cotrustee's action is not liable for it if the trustee exercised reasonable care to prevent a serious breach and to compel its redress (§114.006). Knowing of a serious breach and doing nothing is the failure the section describes.
Can one Texas co-trustee act alone?
When a vacancy occurs the remaining cotrustees may act; otherwise a cotrustee acts alone only within a delegation made under the instrument or applicable law and communicated to the other cotrustees, or when the others are unavailable for the reasons §113.085 lists. The instrument can allocate functions among cotrustees, and §114.0031 governs directed trusts.
Lectures liées
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