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What "successor trustee" means in Texas

Most Texas revocable living trusts name the settlor as the first trustee and then name one or more successors: the person or institution who steps in when the settlor can no longer act, and who administers the trust after the settlor's death. The Trust Code's definition of a trustee reaches every one of them — the original trustee, an additional trustee and a successor trustee alike (Prop. Code §111.004).

While the settlor is alive, a Texas trust is revocable unless the instrument makes it irrevocable by its express terms, and the settlor may modify or amend it as the section provides (§112.051). The successor's role in that period is whatever the instrument gives it; the settlor's instructions govern. At the settlor's death the trust becomes irrevocable, and the beneficiaries' rights — to be kept informed, and to an accounting on demand — become their own.

Accepting, declining, and the presumption

Section 112.009 treats becoming trustee as a decision with evidence attached. Signing the trust instrument, or a separate written acceptance, is conclusive evidence that the person has accepted. Exercising the trustee's powers or performing the trustee's duties is presumptive evidence of acceptance, with the exceptions the section states — so the way a successor begins is itself the record of whether the role was taken up.

A named person may decline. The instrument usually says how, and the next person it names takes the role; where the instrument is silent, the court with jurisdiction over the trust (§115.001) resolves who serves. A trustee who later wants to leave resigns as the instrument provides or with a court's permission (§113.081), and a trustee may be removed as the instrument provides or by a court on the petition of an interested person (§113.082).

Two beginnings: incapacity and death

A successor trusteeship usually begins in one of two ways, and they are not the same job. When the settlor becomes incapacitated, most trust instruments spell out how that is established and what the successor may do while the settlor lives; the instrument's terms control, and the settlor's power to revoke or amend (§112.051) remains the settlor's.

When the settlor dies, the trust becomes irrevocable and the successor's work changes character. Texas sets no opening notice to beneficiaries, no filing with a court and no 60-day clock: the duty to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed is the common law's, protected by statute for a beneficiary of an irrevocable trust who is 25 or older (§111.0035(c)); an accounting is owed on a beneficiary's written demand, on or before the 90th day (§113.151); and within a reasonable time after accepting or receiving the assets, the trustee reviews them and decides what to keep and what to dispose of (§117.006).

In either beginning, the institutions the successor meets — banks, title companies, brokerages — want proof of authority rather than the instrument itself. The Trust Code provides it: a certification of trust under §114.086 states the trust's existence and date, the settlor, the trustee and the trustee's powers without disclosing the dispositive terms, and a person who deals with the trustee in good faith in reliance on it is protected as §114.081 provides. Preparing the certification early, with the written acceptance beside it, is what turns a named successor into a trustee the world can transact with.

The duties that come with the role

Chapter 113 of the Property Code and the Uniform Prudent Investor Act in chapter 117 are the trustee's job description, and a successor who has read them once will recognize almost every later question as one of these duties in a particular costume.

• Administer the trust in good faith according to its terms and the Texas Trust Code and, absent contrary terms, the duties the common law imposes (§113.051).
• The prudent investor rule: invest and manage as a prudent investor would, considering the trust's purposes, terms, distribution requirements and other circumstances, each decision judged as part of the whole portfolio (§§117.003–117.004).
• Within a reasonable time of accepting or receiving assets, review them and decide on retention and disposition (§117.006).
• Loyalty: invest and manage solely in the beneficiaries' interest (§117.007); a loan of trust funds to the trustee, an affiliate or a relative is restricted (§113.052).
• Impartiality among beneficiaries with different interests (§117.008); principal and income are allocated under chapter 116 (§116.004).
• Delegation of investment and management functions only with care in selecting, instructing and monitoring the agent (§117.011); attorneys, accountants and other agents as the section provides (§113.018).
• Keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed — the terms cannot limit the duty for a beneficiary of an irrevocable trust who is 25 or older (§111.0035(c)) — and answer a written demand for an accounting on or before the 90th day (§113.151) with what §113.152 lists.
• Exercise discretionary powers in good faith, whatever words the instrument uses (§113.029), within the general powers the Code grants (§113.002).
• After a terminating event, wind up within a reasonable time and distribute (§112.052); trust property is not liable for the trustee's personal obligations (§114.0821).

First steps before acting

Whatever the beginning, the first steps look alike: find and read the trust and every amendment; decide to accept, in writing where the trust asks for it (§112.009); take reasonable control of the property and review the assets (§117.006); obtain the trust's own tax identification number and open the trust's own account; and write down what the trust holds, as of the date the role began, in the form an accounting will later need (§113.152). A certification of trust under §114.086 — the trust's existence and date, the settlor, the trustee and the trustee's powers, without the whole instrument — is what banks and title companies usually ask for.

Сроки попечителя в Техасе: что предусматривают законы

Сверено с законами Техаса 2026-10-04. Общая информация, не юридическая консультация; официальный текст имеет приоритет.

Co-trustees, professional help, and delegation

When the trust names co-successors, §113.085 governs how they act: cotrustees act by majority decision, with the section's rules for a cotrustee who is unavailable or who dissents; when one cotrustee answers for another's breach is §114.006. Keeping each cotrustee's assent or dissent in the record is the ordinary protection.

A trustee is not expected to be an accountant, an appraiser or a lawyer. The trustee may employ attorneys, accountants, agents and other advisors and pay them from the trust as §113.018 provides, and may delegate investment and management functions a prudent trustee of comparable skills could properly delegate (§117.011). Texas sets no presumptive attorney-fee schedule; a court may award costs and reasonable and necessary attorney's fees in a trust proceeding as it finds equitable and just (§114.064).

Resigning, being removed, and the vacancy

A trusteeship can end before the trust does. A trustee resigns in the way the instrument provides or, where it provides none, with a court's permission (§113.081); a trustee may be removed as the instrument provides or by a court on the petition of an interested person, on the grounds the section lists (§113.082). Neither is a quiet exit: the departing trustee's record — the assets on hand, the receipts and disbursements, each known liability — is what the successor and the beneficiaries will measure the administration by, and a written statement of accounts delivered at the handover answers in advance the demand §113.151 lets any beneficiary make.

Who fills the vacancy is first the instrument's question, in the order of succession it names; where it is silent, the court with jurisdiction over the trust resolves it (§115.001), in the county §115.002 provides. Cotrustees who remain act as §113.085 provides; whether a remaining cotrustee answers for a departed cotrustee's breach is §114.006. A successor who steps into a trust already in administration reviews what was received within a reasonable time (§117.006), and the general duty of good faith (§113.051) does not require the successor to re-audit a predecessor's years — it requires the successor to administer well from the day the role began, and to record where a question about the past was handed to counsel.

Compensation, liability, and the ways trustees get into trouble

A trustee is entitled to compensation. If the trust specifies it, the terms control; if the trust is silent, §114.061 allows reasonable compensation, and a court may deny all or part of it for a breach of trust. Expenses properly incurred are reimbursed from trust property (§114.063).

A breach of a duty is a breach of trust: the trustee is accountable to the beneficiaries for the loss, depreciation or profit the statute describes (§114.001), and the remedies in §114.008 include compelling performance, enjoining a breach, surcharge, removal and an accounting. A beneficiary's release binds only with the full information the statute requires (§114.005), and a written trustee–beneficiary agreement binds on the conditions §114.032 states. The recurring breaches are the familiar ones: lending or dealing with oneself (§113.052), mixing trust money with one's own, ignoring a written demand for an accounting (§113.151), and distributing before the debts, the taxes and the reserve are known (§112.052).

When a licensed Texas attorney is the right next call

TrusteeClear organizes the record; it does not give legal advice and it does not decide any of these questions for you. Many successor trustees bring the record to a licensed Texas attorney of their choosing at the points where the general rules run out: a dispute over who serves, a beneficiary's demand the trustee cannot answer in full, a discretionary distribution the instrument leaves open, property that may be community or separate (Fam. Code §§3.001–3.002), or a homestead the surviving spouse may occupy (Tex. Const. art. XVI, §52).