I Am the Successor Trustee. What Do I Do First?

Start by establishing authority and understanding the trust before moving money or making distributions. Obtain the complete signed trust and amendments, confirm that the event triggering your service has occurred, and determine whether you have accepted—or intend to accept—the trusteeship under applicable law and the trust terms.

Successor Trustee vs. Executor or Personal Representative

The roles overlap in purpose but not in legal identity. The personal representative administers the probate estate. The trustee administers the trust. The same individual can serve in both capacities, but that does not merge the estate and trust.

See our companion guide: Personal Representative Duties: The Complete Executor Guide.

What Fiduciary Duties Does a Successor Trustee Have?

Both Michigan and Florida organize trustee law around specific fiduciary duties rather than a vague command to “be fair.” Michigan MCL 700.7801 requires good-faith, expeditious administration according to the trust’s terms and purposes, for beneficiaries, and under the Michigan Trust Code. Florida § 736.0801 similarly requires good-faith administration according to the trust’s terms and purposes, beneficiaries’ interests, and the Florida Trust Code.

Other operational duties can include controlling and protecting trust property, keeping trust property identifiable, maintaining records, enforcing or defending claims, collecting property owed to the trust, providing information and accountings, and making distributions required by the trust.

Trustee Duties After Death: The 20-Step Roadmap

1. 1
   Obtain the complete trust. Work from the signed governing instrument, amendments, restatements, and relevant schedules—not a family summary.
2. 2
   Confirm succession. Determine why the prior trustee is no longer serving and who has priority or authority to act next.
3. 3
   Evaluate acceptance. Understand the trust, assets, disputes, and responsibilities before taking acts that constitute acceptance under governing law.
4. 4
   Identify beneficiaries. Determine current, remainder, contingent, and qualified beneficiaries as relevant under state law.
5. 5
   Determine the trust’s post-death structure. A revocable trust may become irrevocable, terminate, divide into shares, or continue for beneficiaries.
6. 6
   Give required notices. State law can impose deadlines for beneficiary notices. In Florida, a trustee of a trust described in § 733.707(3) also has a statutory duty under § 736.05055 to file a notice of trust with the decedent’s probate court as provided by that section.
7. 7
   Locate trust assets. Confirm legal ownership instead of assuming every asset mentioned by the settlor belongs to the trust.
8. 8
   Protect and control property. Secure assets, address insurance, collect income, and prevent avoidable loss.
9. 9
   Establish administration systems. Use appropriate trust tax identification, banking, bookkeeping, and document-retention systems.
10. 10
    Value property. Obtain date-of-death or other legally relevant valuations when needed for taxes, accounting, allocation, or distribution.
11. 11
    Coordinate with probate. Determine what belongs to the trust, what belongs to the probate estate, and whether trust assets may bear estate expenses or obligations under governing law.
12. 12
    Address creditor issues. Do not assume a revocable trust makes the settlor’s enforceable debts disappear at death.
13. 13
    Administer investments. Review liquidity, concentration, risk, income needs, diversification, trust directions, and prudent-investor obligations.
14. 14
    Manage real estate and businesses. Determine title, authority, occupancy, expenses, insurance, marketability, and whether retention or sale serves the trust.
15. 15
    Address taxes. Coordinate final individual, fiduciary income, estate-tax, property-tax, basis, and other issues as applicable.
16. 16
    Keep beneficiaries appropriately informed. Follow statutory and trust-specific notice, information, and reporting duties.
17. 17
    Prepare accountings. Track beginning assets, receipts, disbursements, gains and losses, distributions, and assets remaining on hand as required.
18. 18
    Interpret distribution terms. Determine who receives what, when, outright or in further trust, and subject to what standards or conditions.
19. 19
    Distribute with appropriate reserves. Resolve or reserve for debts, expenses, taxes, disputes, and administration costs before emptying the trust.
20. 20
    Wind up and preserve records. Complete final reporting, distributions, termination or continuing-trust transitions, and available discharge procedures.

Michigan vs. Florida Trustee Duties After Death

Michigan Successor Trustee Duties

The Michigan Trust Code supplies a detailed operating framework. MCL 700.7801 requires the trustee to administer the trust in good faith, expeditiously, according to its terms and purposes, for the benefit of the beneficiaries, and under the Code. The surrounding provisions address loyalty, impartiality, prudent administration, costs, skills, delegation, protection of property, recordkeeping, claims, collection, and reporting.

Michigan also directly connects certain revocable-trust assets to estate obligations. Under MCL 700.7606, a trustee of a qualifying trust can be required to pay the personal representative amounts properly certified for specified administration expenses, enforceable and timely creditor claims, funeral and burial expenses, and statutory allowances, subject to the section’s limitations and ordering rules.

Trustee compensation is governed by MCL 700.7708: if the trust specifies compensation, that provision generally controls subject to statutory court-adjustment authority; if the trust does not specify compensation, the trustee is entitled to compensation reasonable under the circumstances.

Florida Successor Trustee Duties

Florida’s Chapter 736 is unusually useful for organizing the trustee’s job. Part VIII expressly lists duties and powers including administration, loyalty, impartiality, prudent administration, expenses, trustee skills, delegation, protection of trust property, recordkeeping, marketable title to trust real property, claims, collection, beneficiary information, accounting, and distribution.

Florida trustee powers are broad but fiduciary. Section 736.0815 gives trustees powers conferred by the trust and, subject to limitations, owner-like and other appropriate management/distribution powers; subsection (2) expressly makes exercise of those powers subject to fiduciary duties. Section 736.0816 includes specific powers such as acquiring and selling property and winding up a terminated trust.

Beneficiary Notices, Information, and Trust Accountings

Beneficiary communication is a legal administration issue, not merely customer service. A trustee should identify which beneficiaries are entitled to notices, information, trust terms, or accountings under the governing state’s definitions and rules.

Michigan MCL 700.7814 and Florida §§ 736.0813 and 736.08135 deserve special attention. Florida’s statute expressly requires the trustee to keep qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed and contains specific post-acceptance and post-irrevocability notice rules. Michigan likewise imposes information, notice, and reporting obligations.

Does a Trustee Have to Pay the Deceased Settlor’s Debts?

Sometimes trust property is legally available for estate obligations, but the correct process is state-specific. “The assets are in a revocable trust, so creditors cannot reach them” is not a safe general rule.

Michigan MCL 700.7606 establishes a payment mechanism for qualifying trusts and coordinates the trustee with the personal representative. Florida § 736.05053 likewise requires the trustee of a trust described in § 733.707(3) to pay amounts the personal representative certifies in writing are required for estate administration expenses and obligations, subject to the statute’s source-of-payment, priority, and abatement rules. Florida § 736.1014 generally requires claims dependent on the settlor’s individual liability to be presented and enforced against the settlor’s probate estate rather than brought directly against the qualifying trust, trustee, or beneficiary; the statute preserves claims not dependent on the settlor’s individual liability and specified lien rights.

Trustee Duties When the Trust Owns Real Estate

Confirm title first. Then address possession, insurance, taxes, maintenance, mortgages, association obligations, environmental or condition issues, income, occupancy, and the trust’s directions concerning retention, sale, or distribution.

A trustee’s power to sell does not eliminate fiduciary duties. Price, process, conflicts, beneficiary interests, tax consequences, and the trust’s purposes can matter. If the trustee or a related person wants to buy trust property, obtain advice before treating the transaction like an ordinary third-party sale.

For estates involving property in more than one state, see Michigan and Florida Ancillary Probate. Ancillary probate concerns probate property; properly titled trust property requires a separate trust/title analysis.

Florida Homestead in a Trust After Death

Florida homestead is not simply “another trust asset.” Constitutional devise restrictions, descent rules, creditor protection, spousal and minor-child rights, trust ownership, and the terms of the transfer can materially change the analysis.

Florida § 732.4015 treats the grantor of a trust described in § 733.707(3) as the “owner” for constitutional homestead-devise purposes and treats a disposition by that trust as a “devise” of the homestead portion. A trustee should therefore determine whether the property was the decedent’s protected homestead and whether a surviving spouse or minor child triggers constitutional devise restrictions before relying on general trust powers.

Read the companion cornerstone: Florida Homestead After Death: The Complete Probate & Inheritance Guide.

When Can a Successor Trustee Distribute the Trust?

The trust controls the beneficiary’s substantive entitlement, while state law supplies fiduciary and administration rules. Some trusts call for outright distribution after death. Others divide into marital, family, descendants’, special-needs, or other continuing trusts. Some give the trustee discretion rather than requiring an immediate payout.

Before final distribution, a trustee ordinarily needs enough information to determine beneficiaries, assets, expenses, taxes, claims, reserves, and any unresolved disputes. Florida makes this principle explicit in § 736.0817: distribution after termination must proceed expeditiously, but the trustee may retain a reasonable reserve for debts, expenses, and taxes.

Can a Successor Trustee Be Paid?

Trustee compensation is different from reimbursement of proper trust-administration expenses and different from legal, tax, investment, or other professional fees. Keep the categories documented.

Can a Trustee Be Personally Liable for Breach of Trust?

Yes. A trustee who violates a duty owed to a beneficiary can face remedies for breach. Michigan MCL 700.7901 and Florida § 736.1001 authorize courts to compel performance, enjoin breaches, require restoration or payment, order accountings, appoint special fiduciaries, suspend or remove trustees, reduce or deny compensation, unwind certain transactions, impose liens or constructive trusts, trace property, and grant other appropriate relief.

That does not mean every investment loss, delayed administration, beneficiary disagreement, or disputed interpretation is automatically a breach. Liability depends on the duty, trust language, facts, discretion granted, conduct, causation, loss, defenses, limitations periods, and applicable law.

12 Common Successor Trustee Mistakes

Trustee Duties After Death FAQs

Primary Legal Authorities

Publication audit: September 7, 2026. Reviewed against current Michigan Legislature primary-source provisions and the 2026 Florida Statutes. This resource is educational and is not legal advice. Trust terms, beneficiary status, tax elections, court orders, asset ownership, creditor facts, choice-of-law rules, and later statutory or case-law changes can materially change the analysis.

About Darren Findling

Darren Findling is the founder of The Probate Pro. The firm focuses on probate, estate administration, trust administration, guardianship, and related estate matters. The Probate Pro publishes practical resources designed to make complicated fiduciary procedures understandable to trustees, personal representatives, beneficiaries, families, and professionals.