Trust Administration

Guidance for successor trustees in Truckee, Tahoe, and Reno. You work directly with the attorney handling your file.

Someone has died, and their trust names you as the person responsible for settling it. That comes with real legal duties, real deadlines, and real personal liability if they're missed. It also usually comes at the worst possible moment, while you're grieving and fielding questions from family members who want to know what happens next.

Our job is to take the legal machinery off your plate so you can handle the rest. We tell you what has to happen, in what order, and what it's likely to cost before we start.

What Trust Administration Actually Involves

Most successor trustees are surprised by how much is required. A typical administration includes:

• Notifying beneficiaries and heirs. California requires notice under Probate Code § 16061.7 within 60 days of death. Getting it right starts the clock on challenges to the trust. Getting it wrong leaves the door open indefinitely.

• Identifying and securing trust assets. Bank and brokerage accounts, real property, business interests, vehicles, personal property, digital accounts.

• Fixing assets that never made it into the trust. Property left outside the trust may need a court petition to bring it in.

• Obtaining a taxpayer ID and establishing trust accounts. The trust becomes its own taxpayer at death.

• Date-of-death valuations and appraisals. These set the new basis for every asset and drive later tax reporting.

• Handling creditors, final bills, and taxes. Final personal income tax return, fiduciary income tax returns, and estate tax filings where applicable, including portability elections.

• Funding subtrusts. Many older trusts split into survivor's and bypass trusts at the first death. Skipping this step creates problems that surface years later.

• Real property transfers and tax filings. Deeds, preliminary change of ownership reports, and reassessment exclusions.

• Accountings and reporting to beneficiaries. Required in most cases, and your best protection against later claims.

• Distributions and closing the trust. Done correctly, with releases in hand.

Where People Get Hurt

Three things cause most of the trouble we get called in to fix:

Missed notice deadlines. The statutory notification is short, technical, and time-barred. A defective notice can leave the trust exposed to a contest long after you thought the matter was closed.

Property tax reassessment. Since Proposition 19 took effect in California, the parent-child exclusion is far narrower than most families expect. A transfer handled without planning can reset the assessed value of a long-held Tahoe or Truckee property and raise the annual tax bill permanently. Timing and how title moves both matter.

Trustees acting alone. Distributing early, paying the wrong creditor first, commingling funds, or favoring one beneficiary creates personal liability. You're held to a fiduciary standard whether or not you knew what that meant when you accepted the role.

Both Sides of the State Line

If you live near Tahoe, the trust you're administering probably doesn't respect the state line.

Apricity Law is licensed in both California and Nevada. That matters here more than almost anywhere else. A Reno or Incline Village family with a cabin on the California side. A California trust holding Nevada rental property. A Nevada resident whose parents' trust was drafted in Sacramento decades ago.

Each of those combinations raises questions about which state's law governs the trust, where notice has to go, which accounting rules apply, and whether a second proceeding is needed to clear title on out-of-state real estate. Nevada's notice and limitations rules are not California's, and the differences have teeth.

We staff your matter with an attorney admitted where the trust and its assets actually sit. You aren't paying two firms to coordinate with each other, and no one is guessing about the other state's rules.

How We Work

Hourly, with the scope explained up front. Trust administration is billed hourly because the work genuinely depends on what's in the trust. A funded trust with two beneficiaries and a house is a fraction of the work of a trust holding an operating business, four properties, and a beneficiary threatening litigation. Rather than pad a flat fee to cover the worst case, we walk you through the likely range at the outset, tell you which variables would push it higher, and check in before the scope changes.

Paid from the trust, not your pocket. In the ordinary case, attorney's fees for administering the trust are a trust expense. So is reasonable compensation for your work as trustee.

Direct attorney access. You'll have the cell number of the attorney handling your file, and you'll know at the outset who that is. No layered intake, no paralegal wall, no waiting a week to learn whether you can pay the property tax bill out of the trust account.

Scaled to the matter. Some trustees want us to run the entire administration. Others want to do the legwork themselves and call when something looks unfamiliar. Both are fine, and we'll tell you honestly which makes sense for what you're holding.

Our Process

1. Initial consultation. Bring the trust, the death certificate, and whatever asset information you have. We'll identify the deadlines that are already running.

2. Scope and engagement. A written engagement letter with our rates, an estimate of the work ahead, and what falls outside it.

3. Notice and asset marshaling. We handle statutory notifications and help you inventory and secure trust property.

4. Administration. Valuations, tax coordination, creditor issues, real property transfers, subtrust funding.

5. Accounting and distribution. Beneficiary reporting, releases, final distributions, and closing the trust.

Related Services

• Trust and estate planning

• Trust modifications and decanting

• Heggstad petitions and property transfer petitions

• Probate for assets left outside the trust

• Real estate transactions involving trust-held property

• Trustee representation in disputed administrations

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does trust administration take?
A simple administration typically runs six to twelve months. Trusts holding real property, business interests, or estate-tax exposure take longer. Anything contested takes longer still.

How do you charge for trust administration?
Hourly. The work varies too much from trust to trust for a flat fee to be fair to either of us. We give you an estimated range at the consultation and tell you what would move it. In most administrations, those fees are paid from trust assets as an administrative expense.

Do I need a lawyer to administer a trust?
Not legally. But a trustee is personally liable for mistakes, and beneficiaries have years to raise them. Trustee's fees and reasonable attorney's fees are ordinarily paid from the trust, not out of your pocket.

Is this the same as probate?
No. A properly funded trust avoids probate. If assets were left outside the trust, a separate court proceeding may still be required, and we'll tell you early whether that's your situation.

What if the trust holds property in both California and Nevada?
That's a routine situation for us. The firm is admitted in both states, and we staff cross-border administrations with an attorney licensed where the assets are.

Can I be paid for serving as trustee?
Usually yes. Most trusts authorize reasonable compensation, and California law provides for it where the document is silent.

What should I bring to the first meeting?
The trust and any amendments, the death certificate, a rough list of assets and account statements, deeds to any real property, and recent tax returns if you have them. Come without them if you don't. We'll work from where you are.