נאמן יורש בניו ג'רזי

What "successor trustee" means in New Jersey

A trustee is an original, additional or successor trustee or a co-trustee (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-3). A successor takes office when a vacancy occurs — a designated trustee renounces, cannot be identified or does not exist; a trustee resigns or is discharged, is disqualified or removed, or dies; or a guardian is appointed for an individual serving as trustee (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-49(a)). A vacancy need not be filled while a co-trustee remains; when the trust has no remaining trustee it is filled by the person the terms designate as successor, then by the procedure the terms set, then by a person the qualified beneficiaries appoint by unanimous agreement, then by a person the court appoints (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-49).

A trustee of a living trust needs no court order to take office. A trustee under a will is different: that trustee accepts by obtaining letters of trusteeship from the court that admitted the will to probate (N.J.S.A. 3B:11-2; N.J.S.A. 3B:31-46(a)(1)) — the Surrogate's Court issues them on the acceptance and the power of attorney every fiduciary granted letters files (N.J.S.A. 3B:14-47; R. 4:80-9) — and no fiduciary transfers estate or trust property to a testamentary trustee before the letters issue (N.J.S.A. 3B:23-23).

Taking office: accepting, renouncing, and preserving

A designated trustee accepts by substantially complying with a method of acceptance the terms 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 (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-46(a)(2)). A designee who has not accepted may renounce, and one who does not accept within a reasonable time after knowing of the designation is deemed to have renounced (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-46(b)). Without accepting, a designee may act to preserve the trust property — sending a renunciation within a reasonable time after acting to the settlor or, if the settlor is dead or lacks capacity, to the qualified beneficiaries and any designated successor — and may inspect or investigate the property (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-46(c)).

A bond is the exception, not the rule: a trustee gives bond only if the court finds one needed to protect the beneficiaries or the terms require it and the court has not dispensed with it (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-47); the bonds chapter names the cases where the court or the Surrogate requires one of a fiduciary (N.J.S.A. 3B:15-1), and a surety's premium of up to 1% a year is an expense of the trust (N.J.S.A. 3B:15-8).

No notice to send — the duty to inform instead

New Jersey enacted none of the uniform act's trustee notices: nothing is owed within any period after accepting or after the trust becomes irrevocable, and nothing is filed. N.J.S.A. 3B:31-67(a) provides instead that the trustee keeps the qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed about the administration and of the material facts necessary for them to protect their interests and, unless unreasonable under the circumstances, promptly responds to a beneficiary's request for information; N.J.S.A. 3B:31-67(b) has the trustee furnish a copy of the trust instrument promptly on a beneficiary's request. The qualified beneficiaries are those who, on the date their qualification is determined, are distributees or permissible distributees of trust income or principal, or would be if the current distributees' interests ended that day or the trust terminated that day (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-3); a beneficiary who has sent the trustee a request for notice receives what they receive, as do a charity expressly designated to receive distributions under a charitable trust, a person appointed to enforce an animal or purpose trust and, for a charitable trust administered in the State, the Attorney General (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-10).

The duties are default rules the terms may vary (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-5(a)) — except the duty to respond to the request of a qualified beneficiary of an irrevocable trust who has attained 35 for a copy of the instrument or for information reasonably related to the administration (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-5(b)(7)). While the trust is revocable, the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-44). Notice to a person who may represent and bind a beneficiary — a trustee for the beneficiaries, a guardian, an agent with authority over the question, a parent for a minor or unborn child with no guardian — has the same effect as notice to the beneficiary (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-13(a); N.J.S.A. 3B:31-15).

The duties that come with the role

On accepting, a trustee administers the trust in good faith, in accordance with its terms and purposes and the interests of the beneficiaries (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-54); with undivided loyalty to and solely in the best interests of the beneficiaries (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-55(a)); impartially where there are two or more (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-56); as a prudent person would, with reasonable care, skill and caution (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-57); incurring only reasonable costs (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-58) and using any special skills (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-59). The trustee may delegate where prudent, with written notice to the qualified beneficiaries naming the agent (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-60), acts on a written exercise of a power to direct within the section's limits (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-61), takes control of and protects the property (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-63), keeps adequate records and keeps the property separate (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-64), enforces and defends claims (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-65), compels a former trustee or other person to deliver the property and redresses a former trustee's known breach (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-66), keeps the qualified beneficiaries informed and may report (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-67), and invests under the prudent investor act, reviewing the assets within six months after accepting them (N.J.S.A. 3B:20-11.3; N.J.S.A. 3B:20-11.7).

• Good faith, loyalty, impartiality and prudence — N.J.S.A. 3B:31-54, 3B:31-55, 3B:31-56, 3B:31-57.
• Control, records, claims and collection — N.J.S.A. 3B:31-63, 3B:31-64, 3B:31-65, 3B:31-66.
• The duty to inform, the instrument on request and the optional report — N.J.S.A. 3B:31-67.
• Investment as a prudent investor, with the review of the assets within six months — N.J.S.A. 3B:20-11.3, 3B:20-11.7.

First steps before acting

Read the trust instrument and every amendment before acting in the trustee's name; except as the terms provide otherwise, the code governs the trustee's duties and powers (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-5(a)), so the terms shape every default rule it states. Record the date of death, the date you accepted and how, the date the trust became irrevocable, and the date the trust instrument was executed — an instrument executed before July 17, 2016 stands outside the code's presumption that a trust is revocable unless the terms expressly say otherwise (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-43(a)). Find the deeds, the account statements and the beneficiary designations; list each asset by how it is titled. Identify the qualified beneficiaries and note, for each, your own answer to whether that person is one today; TrusteeClear records your answers and never decides them. Keep the trust property separate from your own and keep the record from day one (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-64).

מועדי הנאמן בניו ג'רזי: מה קובעים החוקים

נבדק מול חוקי ניו ג'רזי בתאריך 2026-10-25. מידע כללי, לא ייעוץ משפטי; הנוסח הרשמי קובע.

Co-trustees and the power to direct

Co-trustees who are unable to reach a unanimous decision may act by majority decision, and a dissenting trustee who joins in carrying out the majority's decision but promptly expresses the dissent in writing to the co-trustees is not liable for the act of the majority (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-48(a)); the remaining co-trustees act during a vacancy; a co-trustee participates unless unavailable or having properly delegated the function (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-48(b), (c)). A trustee who does not join in an action because of absence, illness, disqualification or temporary incapacity is not liable for it, but every trustee exercises reasonable care to prevent a co-trustee's breach of trust and to compel its redress (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-48(f), (g)). Where the terms confer on a person other than the settlor of a revocable trust a power to direct certain actions, the trustee acts on a written exercise of the power unless it is contrary to the terms or the trustee knows it would be a breach of the holder's fiduciary duty (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-61(b)); a person with authority over investment decisions is an investment adviser and a fiduciary, and a fiduciary who follows the adviser's direction is liable only for its own willful misconduct or gross negligence and has no duty to monitor the adviser (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-62). New Jersey has no directed trust act beyond those sections.

Resigning, being removed, and the vacancy

A trustee may resign on at least 30 days' notice to the qualified beneficiaries, the settlor if living, all co-trustees and any trustee designated by the terms to succeed — or with the court's approval, on conditions the court imposes (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-50(a), (b)); a resignation does not discharge any liability of the trustee or of the sureties (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-50(c)). The court may remove a trustee on the request of the settlor, a co-trustee or a beneficiary, or on its own initiative, for any of the reasons N.J.S.A. 3B:14-21 states — neglecting after notice to render an account or give security, embezzling, wasting or misapplying the estate or abusing the trust, no longer residing in the State and neglecting the administration, incapacity, or, as one of two or more fiduciaries, neglecting the duties or refusing to join so that the administration is hindered (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-51). A trustee who has resigned or been removed proceeds expeditiously to deliver the trust property to the co-trustee, successor or other person entitled to it, subject to a reasonable reserve for the resigning trustee's costs (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-52), and the successor takes reasonable steps to compel that delivery (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-66).

Commissions, the report, and the ways trustees get into trouble

A nontestamentary trustee is compensated as the instrument provides and, absent an express provision, by the statutory commissions (N.J.S.A. 3B:18-2): income commissions of 6% (N.J.S.A. 3B:18-24), annual corpus commissions of $5 per thousand on the first $400,000 of corpus value and $3 per thousand above, with a $100 minimum (N.J.S.A. 3B:18-25), and a termination commission of 2%, 1.5% or 1% by the years the corpus was held (N.J.S.A. 3B:18-28). A report, where the trustee elects to give one, states the source and amount of the trustee's compensation (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-67(c)); the trustee is reimbursed for expenses properly incurred in addition (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-53).

A violation of a duty the trustee owes a beneficiary is a breach of trust, for which the court may compel performance, enjoin, compel redress, order an account, appoint a special fiduciary, suspend or remove the trustee, reduce or deny compensation, void an act, impose a lien or a constructive trust, trace the property, or order other relief (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-71). A transaction for the trustee's own account, or otherwise affected by a conflict between the trustee's fiduciary and personal interests, is voidable by an affected beneficiary unless one of the section's exceptions applies, and one with the trustee's spouse or civil-union partner, the trustee's parents or their descendants or their spouses, an agent, accountant or attorney of the trustee, or an enterprise in which the trustee has an interest that might affect the trustee's judgment is presumed conflicted (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-55(b), (c)); an exculpatory term does not reach a breach committed in bad faith or with reckless indifference (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-77); and a beneficiary's consent, release or ratification does not relieve the trustee where it was induced by improper conduct or given without knowledge of the material facts (N.J.S.A. 3B:31-78).

When a licensed New Jersey attorney is the right next call

Whether to accept, who the qualified beneficiaries are on a date, whether the instrument varies a duty, how a particular transaction fares under the duty of loyalty, whether a commission is within the schedule, and what a report should contain to start the six-month period are questions a licensed New Jersey attorney of your choosing answers from the instrument and the facts. TrusteeClear organizes the record and shows the statute's clocks from your dates; it does not decide them.