What Is a Trustee and What Duties Does a Trustee Owe?

A trustee is the person or institution that holds legal title to trust assets and administers them for the beneficiaries under the terms of the trust instrument. In California family trusts, the trustee is often a surviving spouse, an adult child, or a private fiduciary who steps in after the person who created the trust dies or loses capacity.

The Probate Code, beginning at section 16000, imposes a demanding catalog of duties: administer the trust according to its terms, stay loyal to the beneficiaries, avoid conflicts and self-dealing, treat multiple beneficiaries impartially, keep trust property separate and identified, invest prudently, and keep beneficiaries reasonably informed, including through formal accountings. A trustee who profits personally from the position, favors one beneficiary improperly, or lets assets languish faces surcharge, removal, and in bad cases double damages under the financial elder abuse statutes.

Most trust litigation is, at bottom, about trustees: beneficiaries who suspect the trustee of taking or mismanaging, and trustees defending judgment calls made in an impossible family. Both sides live and die by the records.