Checklist · Wills and Estates

Administering a Revocable Trust After the Settlor's Death: A Practical Checklist

Type: Checklist
Jurisdiction: National
Date: 2024-09-15
Topic: Wills and Estates

A working checklist for the successor trustee of a revocable trust that has just become irrevocable, sequenced by what has to happen when. Phases one through four cover the first sixty days: securing the assets and documents before anything is lost, deciding whether to accept the trusteeship at all, giving the statutory notice that starts the contest period running, and obtaining the tax identification number and certification of trust that everything else depends on. Phases five through eight cover the inventory and valuation that establishes the basis step-up and the performance baseline, the debts and claims process, the tax filings including the Section 645 election and the portability election that must not be missed, and the funding of any subtrusts the instrument creates. Phases nine through thirteen cover ongoing administration: the prudent investor review of inherited assets, distributions and the documentation that defends them, the annual report that starts the one-year limitations clock, coordination with any probate proceeding, and the special assets that require their own handling. Phases fourteen through eighteen cover beneficiary relations, conflict management, termination and final distribution with receipts and releases, and records retention.

Administering a Revocable Trust After the Settlor's Death: A Practical Checklist

Wills and Estates > Trust Administration | Published 15 September 2024 - Updated 9 June 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

Two deadlines dominate the first sixty days and both are easy to miss. The statutory notice to qualified beneficiaries under Uniform Trust Code § 813(b), which must go out within sixty days and which in many states starts the clock on any trust contest. And the portability election on a federal estate tax return, which preserves a deceased spouse's unused exclusion and which is lost if no return is filed — even where no tax is owed and no return would otherwise be required.

Keywords: acceptance, § 813 notice, contest period, certification of trust, EIN, date-of-death valuation, basis step-up, § 645 election, portability, subtrust funding, prudent investor review, annual report, receipt and release

Work this in order. The doctrinal treatment is in Trust Administration: A Comprehensive Guide to Trustee Duties, Distributions, and Modification. The narrative overview is The Trustee's Year.

Our running trust. The Corinne Ashgrove Trust (fictional): $2.1 million in securities, a $540,000 rental duplex, and a 30% closely held business interest. Income to surviving spouse Elias (fictional) for life; remainder to Corinne's three children from a prior marriage. Successor trustee: Miles Prentiss (fictional), Corinne's brother.

Phase 1 — The first week

[ ] Obtain multiple certified copies of the death certificate — a dozen is not too many.
[ ] Locate the original trust instrument and every amendment, and confirm you have the latest.
[ ] Locate the pour-over will, and determine whether probate will be needed.
[ ] Secure real property: change locks if appropriate, confirm the property is insured and that the carrier knows it is now vacant or occupied by someone other than the owner, and address utilities and maintenance.
[ ] Secure tangible personal property — this is where family conflict begins, and an inventory with photographs taken before anyone visits prevents most of it.
[ ] Notify financial institutions of the death; freeze transactions and stop automatic payments that should stop.
[ ] Forward mail and begin the process of identifying assets and liabilities from it.
[ ] Do not distribute anything to anyone, including reimbursement of funeral costs, until the picture is clear.
[ ] Identify the funeral and burial arrangements and who has authority.

Why it matters, and the traps. Tangible personal property produces more family disputes than money does, and it disappears in the first week. An inventory with photographs, taken before the house is visited, is the cheapest conflict prevention available.

Phase 2 — Accept or decline

[ ] Read the entire instrument, including every amendment, before doing anything that constitutes acceptance.
[ ] Identify the beneficiaries, the distribution standard, the trustee powers, and whether any trust director or protector holds authority.
[ ] Assess the assets: is this a diversified brokerage account, or does it include real estate, a closely held business, or a concentrated position?
[ ] Identify conflicts: is the trustee also a beneficiary, a co-owner, a creditor, or the business partner of the trust?
[ ] Assess whether the trustee can be impartial among the beneficiaries — particularly where a surviving spouse and children of a prior marriage are on opposite sides.
[ ] Consider whether a co-trustee or a corporate trustee would be better suited.
[ ] Understand that acceptance occurs by exercising powers or performing duties, not only by signing. UTC § 701.
[ ] If declining, do so in writing and promptly — a designated trustee may act to preserve property without accepting, if they reject within a reasonable time.
[ ] Confirm compensation: what the instrument provides, what state law permits, and whether the trustee intends to take it.
[ ] Engage counsel and an accountant now, not later, and confirm the trust pays their fees.

Why it matters, and the traps. Declining is a legitimate and underused option. A trustee who lacks the time, skill, or ability to be impartial is accepting personal liability for a job they cannot perform. Miles should ask himself, before signing anything, whether he can be fair between his late sister's husband and her children.

Phase 3 — Notice, and the contest clock

[ ] Within 60 days after accepting, notify qualified beneficiaries of the acceptance and the trustee's name, address, and telephone number. UTC § 813(b)(2).
[ ] Within 60 days after learning the trust has become irrevocable, notify qualified beneficiaries of the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, the right to request a copy of the instrument, and the right to a trustee's report. § 813(b)(3).
[ ] Identify qualified beneficiaries correctly under § 103(13) — current distributees and permissible distributees, plus those who would take if current interests terminated and those who would take on termination. This includes remaindermen who receive nothing now.
[ ] Determine whether the state's notice starts a trust contest limitations period, and if so include the statutory language exactly — several states provide a short period (commonly 120 days) running from a compliant notice.
[ ] Send by a method that proves delivery, and retain proof.
[ ] Provide a copy of the instrument to any beneficiary who requests it.
[ ] Consider whether to provide the instrument proactively — transparency prevents disputes, and a beneficiary who has to ask twice becomes a plaintiff.
[ ] Notify any trust director or protector and any person holding a power of appointment.

Why it matters, and the traps. Trustees routinely notify only the current income beneficiary and omit remaindermen. That is both a breach and a strategic error: the omitted remaindermen are the ones who sue, and their limitations period never started.

Phase 4 — Identity, authority, and accounts

[ ] Apply for an employer identification number for the trust — the settlor's Social Security number no longer works.
[ ] Prepare a certification of trust under UTC § 1013, which proves the trustee's authority without disclosing the entire instrument. Institutions that demand the full document should be pointed to the statute.
[ ] Open a trust checking account and, where needed, a trust brokerage account, titled with the trust's name and the trustee's fiduciary capacity.
[ ] Retitle assets into the trust's name where they were already trust property but titled loosely, and confirm nothing remains titled in the settlor's individual name that was supposed to be in the trust.
[ ] Never commingle. UTC § 810. Not for a week, not for convenience, not to advance a payment.
[ ] Establish a recordkeeping system capturing every receipt and disbursement with supporting documentation from day one.
[ ] Identify assets that were not funded into the trust and will need probate or a small-estate procedure.

Phase 5 — Inventory and valuation

[ ] Identify every asset: accounts, real property, business interests, tangible personal property, receivables, digital assets, and unclaimed property.
[ ] Obtain date-of-death values for everything.
[ ] Obtain qualified appraisals for real property, closely held business interests, and significant tangible personal property.
[ ] Confirm valuation of the closely held interest addresses discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability, with a defensible methodology.
[ ] Consider the alternate valuation date under I.R.C. § 2032 (six months after death), available only if it reduces both the gross estate and the estate tax.
[ ] Record the values as the basis under I.R.C. § 1014 — this is the number every future capital gain is measured against, and a weak appraisal costs the beneficiaries real money.
[ ] Record the values as the performance baseline for the trustee's own investment stewardship.
[ ] Identify jointly held property, beneficiary-designated assets, and payable-on-death accounts that pass outside the trust.
[ ] Identify life insurance and whether the trust or an individual is the beneficiary.

Phase 6 — Debts, claims, and expenses

[ ] Identify the settlor's debts: mortgages, credit cards, taxes, medical bills, and any judgments.
[ ] Determine whether the state provides a creditor claim procedure for trusts, or whether a probate proceeding is needed to cut off claims — several states allow a trustee to publish notice and shorten the claims period, and several do not.
[ ] Determine the order of abatement — which assets bear which debts and expenses under the instrument and state law.
[ ] Pay valid claims; investigate and reject questionable ones rather than paying for peace.
[ ] Address secured debts: does the beneficiary take the property subject to the mortgage, or is the debt paid from the residue? The instrument usually says, and if it does not, state law supplies a default that may surprise everyone.
[ ] Address final medical expenses, and confirm whether any Medicaid estate recovery claim exists. See Elder Law: A Comprehensive Guide to Incapacity Planning, Medicaid, and Guardianship.
[ ] Reserve for administration expenses, taxes, and contingencies before any distribution.
[ ] Do not distribute before the claims picture is resolved — a trustee who distributes and then discovers a liability is personally exposed.

Phase 7 — Taxes

Income tax

[ ] File the settlor's final Form 1040 for the year of death.
[ ] File Form 1041 for the trust for each year with sufficient income, noting the compressed brackets that reach the top rate at a very low threshold.
[ ] Consider the § 645 election to treat a qualified revocable trust as part of the estate for income tax purposes — which permits a fiscal year, a single return, and other advantages. It is made on Form 8855 and it is time-sensitive.
[ ] Consider the 65-day rule under I.R.C. § 663(b): distributions in the first 65 days of a year may be elected to be treated as made in the prior year, which can shift income to beneficiaries in lower brackets.
[ ] Issue Schedules K-1 to beneficiaries receiving distributions.
[ ] Track distributable net income and the character of distributed income.

Estate and GST tax

[ ] Determine whether Form 706 is required based on the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts.
[ ] File Form 706 to elect portability even where no tax is due — the deceased spousal unused exclusion amount is lost without it. This is the most valuable and most frequently missed election in estate administration, and the deadline is nine months after death with an automatic six-month extension, plus a simplified late-election procedure available in some circumstances for estates not otherwise required to file.
[ ] Consider QTIP and reverse QTIP elections and their consequences.
[ ] Allocate the GST exemption and confirm the inclusion ratio of any trust intended to be exempt.
[ ] Address any state estate or inheritance tax, which frequently has a lower threshold and a different deadline than the federal return.
[ ] Obtain tax clearances where the state provides them before final distribution.

Disclaimers

[ ] Identify any beneficiary who may wish to disclaim, and note the nine-month deadline under I.R.C. § 2518 and the requirement that the disclaimant not have accepted any benefit.
[ ] Confirm the disclaimer's effect under the instrument — where the disclaimed interest goes determines whether the disclaimer accomplishes anything.

Phase 8 — Fund the subtrusts

[ ] Determine what subtrusts the instrument creates on death — marital, credit shelter or bypass, GST-exempt and non-exempt shares, and separate shares for children.
[ ] Determine the funding formula: pecuniary, fractional, or a Clayton or disclaimer-based approach — each has different consequences for gain recognition and for post-death appreciation.
[ ] Determine which assets fund which subtrust, considering basis, income production, liquidity, and growth potential. This allocation has real economic consequences and it is frequently done mechanically.
[ ] Confirm the marital deduction requirements are satisfied for any marital trust, including the mandatory annual income distribution for a QTIP under I.R.C. § 2056(b)(7).
[ ] Fund promptly — an unfunded credit shelter trust is a common and expensive failure, and the appreciation that should have escaped the survivor's estate does not.
[ ] Obtain separate EINs for each subtrust and maintain separate accounts and records.
[ ] Document the funding with a written allocation showing what went where and at what value.

Why it matters, and the traps. A credit shelter trust that is never funded produces exactly the outcome the plan was designed to avoid. Subtrust funding is a discrete project with a deadline, and it is routinely deferred until the accountant asks about it two years later.

Phase 9 — Review the investments

[ ] Review inherited assets and make and implement decisions about retention or disposition within a reasonable time. Uniform Prudent Investor Act § 4.
[ ] Understand that an inherited portfolio is not grandfathered — the trustee owns the decision to keep it from the moment they could have changed it.
[ ] Prepare an investment policy statement stating the trust's purposes, time horizon, beneficiary needs, return objective, risk tolerance, allocation ranges, liquidity needs, and review schedule.
[ ] Analyze any concentrated position and make a documented reasoned determination under UPIA § 3 whether the trust's purposes are better served without diversifying.
[ ] Analyze illiquid assets — the closely held interest and the real property — for marketability, income production, carrying costs, and the effect on each class of beneficiary.
[ ] Consider delegation of investment management under UTC § 807, documenting selection, scope, and the review schedule. For a trustee without investment expertise, delegation is the prudent course.
[ ] Consider a directed trust structure for the closely held interest, allocating that decision to a trust director with the relevant knowledge.
[ ] Address the impartiality problem between income and remainder beneficiaries: evaluate the power to adjust and a unitrust conversion, in writing, whichever way it comes out.
[ ] Calendar periodic review — quarterly for a substantial trust.

Phase 10 — Distributions

[ ] Identify mandatory distributions and make them on schedule — a QTIP requires all income at least annually, and failure jeopardizes the marital deduction.
[ ] For discretionary distributions, apply the process: read the standard; determine whether other resources may be considered; gather the facts; consider the effect on other beneficiaries and on the trust's duration; consider tax consequences; decide and record the reasoning; and communicate the decision, including a denial, with reasons.
[ ] Confirm any distribution to a trustee who is also a beneficiary is limited to an ascertainable standard under UTC § 814(b).
[ ] Confirm distributions to a beneficiary receiving means-tested benefits will not disqualify them — cash and payments for food and shelter reduce SSI.
[ ] Consider whether a distribution should be in kind rather than in cash, and the gain recognition consequences.
[ ] Maintain a distribution log with the request, the standard applied, the facts considered, the decision, and the date communicated.
[ ] Obtain a receipt for every distribution.

Phase 11 — Reporting

[ ] Send a report at least annually and on termination to distributees and to other qualified beneficiaries who request it. UTC § 813(c).
[ ] Include: trust property with market values where feasible; liabilities; receipts and disbursements; and the source and amount of the trustee's compensation.
[ ] Make the disclosure specific enough to start the § 1005 one-year clock — describe transactions, counterparties where relevant, and amounts. "Real estate disposition, $540,000" discloses nothing; "sale of 14 Larkspur Street to J. Prentiss, the trustee's son-in-law, for $540,000 on March 3, appraised at $535,000 on February 12" discloses everything and starts the clock.
[ ] Include the statutory language informing beneficiaries of the time allowed to commence a proceeding, where the state requires it.
[ ] Send to remaindermen, not only to current beneficiaries.
[ ] Retain proof of delivery.
[ ] Respond promptly to information requests under § 813(b)(1).
[ ] Notify in advance of any change in the method or rate of compensation. § 813(b)(4).

Why it matters, and the traps. This is the single highest-value practice in trust administration. A trustee who reports specifically converts an indefinite exposure into a one-year window. A trustee who reports vaguely has both breached the duty and preserved the exposure.

Phase 12 — Coordination with probate

[ ] Determine whether probate is necessary for assets not funded into the trust.
[ ] File the pour-over will where the state requires lodging it regardless.
[ ] Consider a small estate affidavit or summary procedure for modest unfunded assets.
[ ] Coordinate the creditor claim process — in many states only a probate proceeding cuts off claims on a short schedule.
[ ] Coordinate tax filings between the estate and the trust, particularly if the § 645 election is made.
[ ] Coordinate the allocation of expenses between the estate and the trust.
[ ] Confirm who has authority over tangible personal property and how it will be distributed.

See Administering an Estate: A Probate Checklist.

Phase 13 — Special assets

Real property

[ ] Confirm title, insurance (including a vacancy endorsement if applicable), and property tax status.
[ ] Address rental property: leases, security deposits, maintenance, and the landlord obligations the trust has assumed. See Residential Landlord-Tenant Compliance and Eviction: A Practical Checklist.
[ ] Consider whether to sell or retain, and document the reasoning under UPIA.

Closely held business

[ ] Obtain the governing documents — operating agreement, shareholder agreement, buy-sell agreement.
[ ] Determine whether a buy-sell provision was triggered by the death and what its terms and deadlines are.
[ ] Determine the trust's voting and information rights.
[ ] Assess the trustee's conflict if the trustee is also involved in the business.
[ ] Consider I.R.C. § 6166 deferral of estate tax attributable to a closely held business, and § 303 redemptions.
[ ] Consider a directed trust allocation of authority over this asset.

Retirement accounts

[ ] Determine whether the trust is a designated beneficiary and whether it qualifies as a see-through trust.
[ ] Apply the SECURE Act rules: most designated beneficiaries must fully distribute within ten years, with an exception for eligible designated beneficiaries — a surviving spouse, a minor child of the participant (until majority), a disabled or chronically ill individual, and a beneficiary not more than ten years younger.
[ ] Confirm whether annual required distributions apply within the ten-year period, which depends on whether the participant had begun required minimum distributions.
[ ] Coordinate with any special needs trust for a disabled beneficiary.
[ ] Note that naming a trust as beneficiary of a retirement account is a technical exercise and a common source of unnecessary acceleration.

Digital assets

[ ] Apply the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act and the terms of service for each platform.
[ ] Identify accounts, cryptocurrency, domain names, and online business assets, and secure the credentials.

Phase 14 — Beneficiary relations

[ ] Establish a communication cadence and stick to it. Most trust disputes are caused by silence.
[ ] Respond to inquiries promptly, even to say that an answer is coming.
[ ] Explain decisions, particularly denials, in writing and with reasons.
[ ] Treat all beneficiaries consistently in access to information — favoring one is how impartiality claims begin.
[ ] Where beneficiaries are in conflict, consider whether separate counsel for each and a nonjudicial settlement agreement under UTC § 111 would resolve the recurring question rather than relitigating it annually.
[ ] Consider a petition for instructions where a decision is genuinely close — asking the court in advance is far cheaper than being sued afterward.
[ ] Do not take sides in a family dispute; the trustee's obligation runs to the trust's terms, not to a faction.

Phase 15 — Termination and final distribution

[ ] Confirm the terminating event has occurred under the instrument.
[ ] Confirm all taxes are paid and clearances obtained where available.
[ ] Confirm all claims are resolved or barred.
[ ] Prepare a final accounting covering the entire administration.
[ ] Determine the final distribution amounts, with any required valuations for in-kind distributions.
[ ] Obtain a receipt, release, and refunding agreement from each beneficiary — releasing the trustee, acknowledging receipt, and agreeing to refund if a later liability appears.
[ ] Where a beneficiary will not sign, consider a court accounting and discharge or a nonjudicial settlement agreement under § 111.
[ ] Retain a reserve for final expenses and contingent liabilities, with a stated plan for distributing the residue.
[ ] Distribute, obtain final receipts, and file any final returns.
[ ] Obtain a discharge where the state provides one.

Phase 16 — Records

[ ] Retain the trust instrument and amendments permanently.
[ ] Retain the inventory, appraisals, and valuation support permanently — the basis records matter to beneficiaries for decades.
[ ] Retain all accountings and reports, with proof of delivery, permanently.
[ ] Retain tax returns and supporting records for at least seven years, and the Form 706 permanently.
[ ] Retain the distribution log, the investment policy statement, and the documented determinations under UPIA § 3 and UTC § 814.
[ ] Retain receipts and releases permanently.
[ ] Retain records of every beneficiary communication.
[ ] Deliver copies to a successor trustee on any transition.

Worked example — the Ashgrove administration

Week 1. Miles obtains twelve death certificates, locates the 2011 trust and its two amendments, secures the duplex and confirms the insurer knows it is now trust-owned, and photographs the contents of Corinne's home before anyone visits.

Day 20. Miles accepts after reading the instrument and confronting the impartiality problem directly: Elias receives income for life; the children receive the remainder; and Miles is Corinne's brother, not Elias's. He accepts, and engages counsel and an independent investment advisor at the outset specifically to create a record of impartial process.

Day 45. Notices go out under § 813(b)(2) and (3) to Elias and to all three children as remaindermen — with the state's contest-period language included, which starts a 120-day clock.

Day 60. EIN obtained. Certification of trust prepared. Trust accounts opened. The bank that demanded the full instrument is pointed to UTC § 1013 and accepts the certification.

Months 2–4. Appraisals: the duplex at $540,000; the business interest at $1.15 million after a documented 28% combined discount for lack of control and marketability. The appraisal is the basis under § 1014 and the baseline for Miles's own stewardship, and a weak one would cost the children capital gains tax for decades.

Month 6. Form 706 filed solely to elect portability. No tax is due, no return is otherwise required, and the election preserves Corinne's unused exclusion for Elias. It is the single highest-value hour in the administration.

Month 7. Subtrusts funded: the marital QTIP and the credit shelter share, with a written allocation showing which assets went where and why. The duplex funds the QTIP because it produces income Elias needs; the growth securities fund the credit shelter share because the appreciation should escape Elias's estate.

Month 8. The investment policy statement is adopted. The business interest is analyzed under UPIA § 3: illiquid, non-income-producing, subject to a buy-sell with a five-year installment payout, and the family's largest single asset. Miles makes a documented determination to retain it and to revisit annually — and separately proposes a directed trust amendment allocating authority over that asset to a trust director with the family business knowledge he lacks.

Month 10. The impartiality analysis. Miles evaluates a unitrust conversion in writing. The state permits trustee election with notice and a right to object. He elects a 4% unitrust, which aligns Elias's and the children's interests and eliminates the structural pressure to hold bonds. Two children object; the record of the analysis is what defeats the objection.

Month 14 and annually thereafter. The first report goes out — specific, itemized, with market values, the trustee's compensation stated, and the statutory language about the time allowed. The one-year clock starts. It restarts every year, which is exactly the point.

Administering a Revocable Trust After the Settlor's Death: A Practical Checklist

Phase 1 — The first week

Phase 2 — Accept or decline

Phase 3 — Notice, and the contest clock

Phase 4 — Identity, authority, and accounts

Phase 5 — Inventory and valuation

Phase 6 — Debts, claims, and expenses

Phase 7 — Taxes

Phase 8 — Fund the subtrusts

Phase 9 — Review the investments

Phase 10 — Distributions

Phase 11 — Reporting

Phase 12 — Coordination with probate

Phase 13 — Special assets

Phase 14 — Beneficiary relations

Phase 15 — Termination and final distribution

Phase 16 — Records

Worked example — the Ashgrove administration

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