Houston Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney Blog
A successor trustee usually starts the job during a funeral week, holding a document nobody has read closely in years. The authority arrives immediately and without a court appointment, which is the advantage of a trust and also the reason the role catches people unprepared. Nothing formal marks the beginning.
Successor trustee duties in Texas begin with a fiduciary obligation that is broader than the trust document describes. Under Texas Property Code § 113.051, a trustee shall administer the trust in good faith according to its terms, and absent contrary terms shall perform all of the duties imposed on trustees by the common law. A great deal of what a trustee owes therefore never appears in the instrument at all. McCulloch & Miller advises trustees on trust administration in Austin, Houston, and across Texas.
What a Texas Successor Trustee Takes On
A successor trustee is the person or institution that assumes administration of a trust when the original trustee dies, resigns, becomes incapacitated, or is removed. Under § 113.083, that successor is selected by whatever method the trust instrument prescribes, and only if the instrument fails to provide one does a court become involved, on petition of any interested person.
Section 113.084 completes the transfer. Unless the instrument or a court order says otherwise, the successor holds the rights, powers, authority, discretion, and title to trust property that were conferred on the trustee, and the scope of that discretion varies widely across the types of trusts a Texas family may use. There is no order to obtain and no letters to collect, which is why acting before understanding the powers is the characteristic early mistake.
The work of the first weeks is unglamorous. Read the entire instrument including amendments, identify every asset and confirm how each is titled, secure real property and valuables, obtain a taxpayer identification number where one is needed, and open a separate account so trust funds never touch personal ones. Commingling is the fastest route to a personal liability problem.
Texas Has No Statutory Deadline to Notify Beneficiaries
Trustees often arrive believing they owe every beneficiary a formal notice within a fixed number of days after the death. Several states impose exactly that. Texas does not. No provision in Chapter 113 sets a notification deadline, and hunting for the form that satisfies it is a hunt for something that does not exist.
What Texas has instead is a duty to inform that runs through the common law, reaching the trustee by way of § 113.051, and a statutory floor under it. Section 111.0035(c) provides that the terms of a trust may not limit any common-law duty to keep a beneficiary of an irrevocable trust who is 25 years of age or older informed, during any period the beneficiary is entitled or permitted to receive distributions or would receive one if the trust terminated.
Three conditions sit inside that sentence. The trust has to be irrevocable, the beneficiary has to be at least 25, and the beneficiary has to hold a current or terminating distribution interest. Within those limits the settlor cannot draft the duty away.
Communicating early anyway is the prudent course, because silence is what produces demand letters and a forthcoming trustee stands in a better position when a decision is later questioned.
The Accounting Demand and the 90th Day
The deadline that does exist is triggered by the beneficiary, not by the calendar. Under § 113.151(a), a beneficiary may demand a written statement of accounts by written demand, covering all transactions since the last accounting or since the trust was created, whichever is later.
If the trustee fails or refuses to deliver that statement on or before the 90th day after receiving the demand, or after any longer period a court orders, any beneficiary may bring suit to compel delivery to all beneficiaries. The same subsection limits how often this can be required, since a trustee is not obligated to account more than once every 12 months unless a court orders otherwise.
The consequence of ignoring a demand is financial. Where the beneficiary succeeds, the court may in its discretion award all or part of the court costs and all of the suing beneficiary’s reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees and costs against the trustee, individually or as trustee. A written demand should never sit in a drawer.
That obligation is also one the settlor could not waive. Section 111.0035(b)(4)(A) places the duty to answer a § 113.151 demand from a qualifying beneficiary among the terms a trust may not limit.
What an Accounting Has to Contain
Section 113.152 sets out what a written statement of accounts shows, and a trustee who provides a bank statement instead has not complied.
- New trust property: all trust property that has come to the trustee’s knowledge or possession and was not previously listed or inventoried.
- A complete transaction record: receipts, disbursements, and other transactions for the period, including source and nature, with receipts of principal and income shown separately.
- An asset listing: all property being administered, with an adequate description of each asset.
- The cash position: the balance on hand and the name and location of the depository.
- Liabilities: all known liabilities owed by the trust.
Keeping records in that shape from the first month is far easier than reconstructing them under a 90-day deadline two years later, which is where most trustees who call an attorney already are.
Where a Trust Accounting Suit Is Actually Heard
The intuitive answer here is wrong. A suit to compel a trust accounting is not filed in a county probate court by default. Under Texas Property Code § 115.001(a), the district court has original and exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings by or against a trustee and all proceedings concerning trusts, and § 115.001(a)(9) names requiring an accounting by a trustee among them.
That exclusivity yields only where jurisdiction is separately conferred by law on a statutory probate court, a court creating a trust under specified provisions, a justice court, or a county court at law, under § 115.001(d). A trustee in Travis County or Harris County who assumes the probate court is the forum may be reading the wrong docket.
Questions New Texas Trustees Ask
Can a Successor Trustee Be Paid?
Usually yes. Most trust instruments authorize reasonable compensation. The amount should be reasonable for the work actually performed and documented as it is taken, because compensation is among the items a court may adjust if a trustee is found to have breached a duty.
Does the Trustee Have to Follow the Trust Exactly?
Section 113.051 requires administration in good faith according to the trust’s terms. Where a term is ambiguous, or following it has become impractical, the answer is to seek advice or court guidance rather than to improvise. A trustee who departs from the instrument on their own judgment carries the risk of that decision personally.
Should a Trustee Distribute Quickly to Avoid Complaints?
Moving fast can create the larger problem. Debts, taxes, and expenses may still be outstanding, and a trustee who has distributed the assets may have to recover them or make up the shortfall. Confirming what the trust owes before distributing is the more defensible sequence.
Getting Advice Before the First Distribution
Most trustee liability comes from ordinary decisions made without advice rather than from anything deliberate. McCulloch & Miller helps successor trustees in Austin, Houston, and across Texas understand what the instrument requires, what the Property Code adds on top of it, and how to document the administration so it holds up later. To discuss a trust you have been asked to administer, contact McCulloch & Miller or call (713) 333-8900.