Successor trustee

What it means

In a revocable living trust the creator is usually the first trustee. The successor is who takes over — and for most families that transition happens twice: once if the creator loses capacity, and again at death.

The successor's authority comes from the trust document, not from a court. An institution will normally ask for the document, or a certification of trust, and proof of the event that triggered the change.

Naming a successor is what makes a trust work. A trust with no willing successor has to go to court for one, which is the outcome it was written to avoid.

Why it matters

It is the moment a trust either does its job or does not. A successor who cannot be found, has died, or does not want the role turns a private arrangement into a court matter.

Being named is also a real appointment with real duties, and many people learn they were named only after the death.

When you are likely to meet it

• When a parent's trust names you.
• When a bank asks who has authority over a trust account.
• When the person who set up a trust loses capacity.

How this varies by state

The trustee's duties, notice obligations and accounting requirements are set by each state's trust code.

Related terms

• CapacityWhether somebody is able to understand a decision and its consequences well enough to make it. It is decided decision by decision, not once and for all.
• Certificate of trustA short document proving a trust exists and what the trustee may do, without revealing its terms.
• FiduciaryAnybody who holds power over somebody else's money or decisions and is legally required to use it for them rather than for themselves.
• Fiduciary dutyThe obligation to act for somebody else's benefit rather than your own — and to be able to show you did.
• Funding a trustActually moving property into a trust — retitling accounts and deeds into its name. An unfunded trust generally does not control assets that were never transferred into it.
• GrantorThe person who creates a trust and puts property into it.
• Legal and equitable titleOwnership split in two: one person holds the property, another holds the benefit of it.
• Revocable living trustA trust you create during your lifetime, keep control of, and can change or cancel at any time. Property held in it does not go through probate.
• Terms of a trustNot the same as the trust document — the terms are what the person who created it meant, and evidence outside the paper can establish them.
• TrusteeThe person or institution that holds and manages trust property for the people it is meant to benefit.
• Successor agentThe person a power of attorney names to act if the first-named agent cannot. Without one, the document can be left with nobody able to use it.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Trusts after a death