What a Florida trust beneficiary is owed: notice, copies, accountings, and where to bring a concern

Are you a qualified beneficiary?

The rights below belong to qualified beneficiaries, a defined group under §736.0103: the living beneficiaries who currently may receive trust income or principal, and those who would receive it if the current interests ended or the trust terminated today. A surviving spouse who receives income for life is one; so are the children who take when the spouse dies. A grandchild who takes only if a parent predeceases usually is not, while the parent lives. If you are unsure which you are, the trust's distribution provisions answer, and a licensed Florida attorney of your choosing can read them with you.

Timing matters too. While the trust is revocable, the trustee's duties run to the settlor alone (§736.0603); the rights below begin when the trust becomes irrevocable, usually at the settlor's death.

Notice: within 60 days

Section 736.0813(1) requires the trustee to keep the qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration, and it names two notices. Within 60 days after accepting the trusteeship, the trustee tells you of the acceptance, the trustee's full name and address, and that the fiduciary lawyer-client privilege of §90.5021 applies to the trustee and any attorney the trustee employs. Within 60 days after learning the trust has become irrevocable, the trustee tells you that the trust exists, who the settlor was, that you may request a complete copy of the trust instrument, and that you are entitled to accountings. A beneficiary who has heard nothing three months after a death is entitled to ask why.

Copies and information: on reasonable request

On reasonable request, the trustee provides a complete copy of the trust instrument (§736.0813(1)(c)) and relevant information about the assets and liabilities of the trust and the particulars relating to its administration (§736.0813(1)(e)). A request in writing, dated, asking for the instrument and its amendments and for a list of the trust's assets and their values, is the ordinary way to exercise the right; a trustee who receives it and does nothing has breached the section.

The accounting: at least annually

The trustee of an irrevocable trust provides a trust accounting at least annually, on termination of the trust, and on a change of trustee (§736.0813(1)(d)). Under §736.08135 it must be a reasonably understandable report that shows the receipts and disbursements, the gains and losses, the assets on hand with their values, the liabilities, the compensation paid to the trustee and its agents, and the allocation between income and principal where it affects you. A bank statement with a cover note is not an accounting. You may waive the accounting in writing and withdraw the waiver (§736.0813(2)); read what you are asked to sign.

One document deserves attention when it arrives: a limitation notice under §736.1008. If the accounting adequately discloses a matter and a limitation notice accompanies it, a claim about that matter is barred six months after you receive it. Six months is time enough to have the accounting read; it is not time to set it aside.

When it does not arrive, or does not add up

The code's ladder starts low. A written request, citing §736.0813, resolves most silences. A nonjudicial settlement agreement under §736.0111 can resolve a dispute about an accounting or the trustee's compensation without a court. Beyond that, §736.1001 lets a beneficiary ask the court to compel the trustee to perform, to order an accounting, to surcharge a loss, to reduce or deny compensation, and, under §736.0706, to remove the trustee for a serious breach or persistent failure to administer effectively. Each step up the ladder is a decision for a licensed Florida attorney of your choosing, with the notices, the requests and whatever accountings exist in hand.

What a beneficiary is not owed

A beneficiary is not owed a distribution on demand; the trustee distributes as the trust directs, expeditiously after termination and subject to a reasonable reserve (§736.0817). A beneficiary is not owed the trustee's agreement with every decision; a discretionary decision made in good faith under §736.0814 stands even when a beneficiary would have decided differently. And a beneficiary is not owed information about other beneficiaries' interests beyond what the accounting shows. Knowing the edges of the rights is part of exercising them well.

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