The Successor Trustee's Checklist: What to Do After the Trustors Pass Away

You Didn't Ask for This Job — Here's How to Do It Right

Being named successor trustee is usually presented as an honor: someone trusted you enough to hand you the keys. In practice, it often lands as a stack of paperwork, a grief-fogged brain, and a vague sense that you're going to get something wrong. You won't, if you work through this in order.

Utah has adopted a version of the Uniform Trust Code, codified at Utah Code Title 75B, Chapter 2, that spells out — in real detail — exactly what a trustee must do, and by when. Most of what follows isn't a best practice or a suggestion. It's a legal duty, and in a few places, it's a hard deadline with a specific number of days attached to it.

The Two Duties That Sit Underneath Everything Else

Before the checklist, it helps to understand the two legal duties that every step below is really just an application of. Once these click, the rest of the list stops feeling like arbitrary bureaucracy and starts feeling like common sense with a statute number attached.

The duty to administer the trust. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-801, once you accept the trusteeship, you must administer the trust "expeditiously and in good faith, in accordance with the trust's terms and purposes and the interests of the beneficiaries." Read the trust document. Its instructions come first — this checklist covers what the law requires in addition to and around whatever the trust itself says.

The duty of loyalty. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-802, you must administer the trust solely in the interests of the beneficiaries — not your own. If the trust has more than one beneficiary, § 75B-2-803 also requires you to act impartially among them, giving due regard to each one's interests even if you happen to be a beneficiary yourself. And under § 75B-2-804, you must administer the trust "as a prudent person would" — exercising reasonable care, skill, and caution, not necessarily perfection.

The Step-by-Step Checklist

1. 1. Locate the Trust Document and Get Certified Death Certificates

   Find the original (or a complete copy) of the trust and any amendments, and confirm the document actually names you as successor trustee and that any conditions on your service — a predecessor trustee resigning, a determination of incapacity, the death of both trustors — have been met. Order at least 8–10 certified copies of the death certificate from the county or state vital records office; you will need originals, not photocopies, for financial institutions, the county recorder, and the IRS.

2. 2. Accept the Trusteeship

   Under Utah Code § 75B-2-701, you accept the role either by following whatever acceptance method the trust document specifies, or — if it doesn't specify one — simply by accepting delivery of trust property, exercising powers, or otherwise acting as trustee. In other words, you can accept formally in writing, or you can accept just by starting to do the job. If you'd rather not serve, you need to reject the trusteeship affirmatively; a trustee who doesn't act within a reasonable time after learning of the designation is treated as having rejected it.

3. 3. Notify the Beneficiaries — Within 60 Days

   This is the deadline most new trustees don't know exists. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-811, within 60 days of accepting the trusteeship you must notify the qualified beneficiaries of your acceptance and give them your name, address, and phone number. Separately — and this applies whether or not you've formally "accepted" yet — within 60 days of learning that the trust has become irrevocable (typically, the date of the last trustor's death), you must notify the qualified beneficiaries of the trust's existence, the identity of the settlor(s), their right to request a copy of the trust instrument, and their right to a trustee's report. Both notices can usually be combined into a single letter.

4. 4. Get an EIN and Open a Trust Bank Account

   Once the trust becomes irrevocable, it generally needs its own federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS — you can no longer use the deceased trustor's Social Security number. Open a trust checking account under that EIN, and move trust funds out of any accounts still titled in the trustors' individual names. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-808, you're required to keep trust property separate from your own and to maintain adequate records of everything that moves through the trust from this point forward.

5. 5. Take Control of and Inventory Trust Assets

   Utah Code § 75B-2-807 requires you to take reasonable steps to take control of and protect trust property. Build a full inventory — real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance, vehicles, business interests, and personal property of value — and get date-of-death appraisals or valuations for anything that will need a stepped-up cost basis later, especially real estate and closely held business interests. Make sure everything is insured and, for real property, that title reflects the trust correctly.

6. 6. Handle Notice to Creditors

   You have two separate obligations here. First, under Utah Code § 75B-2-508, you must give written notice to any creditor of the deceased trustor that you actually know about, giving them a window to present a claim. Second, you may — this part is optional — publish a notice to creditors once a week for three weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the trustor lived, which cuts off unknown creditors' claims three months after the first publication instead of leaving the claims period open for up to a year. If the trustor received Medicaid benefits after age 55, you're also required to notify the Utah Office of Recovery Services, which may have a claim for benefits paid.

7. 7. Pay Debts, Expenses, and Taxes — In the Right Order

   File the trustors' final personal income tax return, and file a trust income tax return (IRS Form 1041) for any income the trust earns during administration. If the estate is large enough to owe federal estate tax — a threshold most Utah families never reach — a federal estate tax return may also be required; see our post on the federal estate tax exemption for current numbers. If trust assets aren't sufficient to pay every claim in full, Utah Code § 75B-2-511 sets the required payment order: funeral expenses first, then costs of administration, then debts and taxes with federal preference, then medical expenses of the final illness, then debts with state preference, and everything else last.

8. 8. Administer the Trust Prudently While Everything Gets Sorted

   Administration can take months. During that stretch, you're still bound by the duty of loyalty and prudent administration described above — keep investments reasonable, don't let real estate sit uninsured, and don't make distributions to yourself or anyone else outside what the trust document authorizes. If the trust gives you discretion over distributions, read the standard carefully; a trust that limits distributions to a beneficiary's health, education, maintenance, and support gives you far less room to say no — or yes — than one that gives you unrestricted discretion.

9. 9. Prepare a Full Accounting Before You Distribute Anything

   Under § 75B-2-811(3), qualified beneficiaries who request it are entitled to a report at least annually and at the termination of the trust: trust property, liabilities, receipts, disbursements, your compensation (or how it was calculated), and a listing of assets with market values where feasible. Do this even if no one has asked — a clean accounting delivered proactively is the single best thing you can do to prevent a beneficiary dispute before it starts.

10. 10. Distribute the Trust Property and Close Out Administration

    Under Utah Code § 75B-2-815, once debts, expenses, and taxes are resolved, you must proceed expeditiously to distribute what remains to the beneficiaries — though you're allowed to hold back a reasonable reserve in case a late bill or tax liability surfaces. Consider sending beneficiaries a written proposal for distribution; if a beneficiary doesn't object within 30 days of a proposal that clearly explained their right to object, their right to challenge that distribution later is cut off. Get signed receipts, make the final distributions, and your job as trustee is done.

You're Allowed to Be Paid

Most successor trustees are family members, and most family members assume the job is unpaid, out of a sense of obligation or a desire not to look greedy in front of siblings. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-708, if the trust document doesn't specify a fee, you're entitled to compensation that's reasonable under the circumstances. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-709, you're also entitled to be reimbursed from trust funds for expenses properly incurred while administering the trust — mileage, postage, appraisal fees, filing fees. Keep a log of your hours and expenses from the very first day, even if you ultimately decide to waive a fee. You can't claim compensation later for time you didn't document.

What If You Don't Want the Job?

It's fine to say no. If you haven't yet accepted the trusteeship, you can simply decline. If you've already accepted and started acting as trustee, Utah Code § 75B-2-705 lets you resign on at least 30 days' notice to the qualified beneficiaries, any co-trustees, and the settlor if still living — or with court approval. Resigning doesn't erase liability for anything that happened while you were serving, so resign cleanly: deliver a full accounting and hand over trust property to whoever takes over next. If the trust doesn't name a backup successor trustee, Utah Code § 75B-2-704 fills the vacancy first by whoever the trust document names next, then by unanimous agreement of the qualified beneficiaries, then by court appointment. For a broader look at trustee options — corporate trustees, independent individuals, co-trustees — see Who Should Be My Successor Trustee?

When to Bring in an Attorney

Nothing in Utah law requires a successor trustee to hire a lawyer. Plenty of straightforward trust administrations — a modest trust, cooperative beneficiaries, no real estate outside Utah, no closely held business — are handled competently by a family member working through a checklist like this one. But a few situations are worth a consultation even if you plan to handle the rest yourself:

• Beneficiaries disagree about anything — the value of an asset, the timing of a distribution, or whether you're doing a good job.
• The trust holds a business interest, out-of-state real estate, or unusual assets like cryptocurrency or mineral rights.
• You're not sure whether a provision in the trust document means what you think it means.
• You've already missed the 60-day notice deadline and aren't sure how to fix it.
• The trust is large enough that federal estate tax might apply.

An attorney's involvement in trust administration is usually front-loaded — a few hours reviewing the trust and confirming your first steps — rather than an ongoing engagement, which keeps the cost well below what a contested court proceeding would run.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do I need a lawyer to administer a trust in Utah?+
  Not as a matter of law — unlike formal probate, trust administration in Utah does not require court involvement or an attorney of record. But a successor trustee is personally liable for mistakes, and the statutory duties under Utah Code Title 75B, Chapter 2 are specific and largely non-negotiable, including hard deadlines like the 60-day notice to beneficiaries. Most successor trustees bring in an attorney at least for the first few months to confirm the notice, creditor claims, and tax steps are done correctly, even if they then handle routine administration on their own.
• How long does trust administration take in Utah?+
  There's no fixed statutory timeline the way probate has waiting periods. Most straightforward trust administrations take six months to a year: enough time for the creditor claims period to run, real property or business interests to be appraised and sold if needed, and a final accounting to be prepared before distribution. Complex trusts — those with real estate in multiple states, closely held businesses, or disputes among beneficiaries — can take considerably longer.
• What happens if I miss the 60-day beneficiary notice deadline?+
  Missing the 60-day window under Utah Code § 75B-2-811 doesn't automatically remove you as trustee, but it is a breach of your duty to inform and report, and it's exactly the kind of early misstep that erodes beneficiary trust and invites a court challenge later. If you've missed it, the fix is simple: send the required notice as soon as you realize the deadline has passed, and don't compound the problem by also missing the annual reporting obligations that follow.
• Can beneficiaries sue me personally as trustee?+
  Yes. A trustee who breaches a fiduciary duty — the duty of loyalty under Utah Code § 75B-2-802, the duty to act impartially among beneficiaries, or the duty to administer the trust prudently under Utah Code § 75B-2-804 — can be held personally liable to the beneficiaries for resulting losses. This is exactly why documentation matters: keeping clear records, communicating proactively, and following the statutory notice and accounting requirements are what protect a trustee who is acting in good faith.
• Do I have to publish a notice to creditors?+
  Publication is optional, not mandatory. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-508, a trustee "may" publish notice to creditors in a newspaper for three weeks, which shortens the claims period for unknown creditors to three months from first publication. Without publication, claims against the deceased settlor generally remain open for up to one year after death under Utah Code § 75B-2-509. Many trustees choose to publish specifically to close that window faster and gain certainty sooner. Written notice to any creditor the trustee actually knows about is required either way.
• Am I entitled to be paid for serving as trustee?+
  Yes. Under Utah Code § 75B-2-708, a trustee is entitled to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances if the trust document doesn't specify an amount, and under Utah Code § 75B-2-709, the trustee is entitled to be reimbursed from trust funds for properly incurred expenses. Many family-member trustees don't realize this and end up absorbing mileage, postage, and hours of administrative work for free. Keep records of your time and expenses from day one, whether or not you ultimately decide to take a fee.