You are entitled to know what is happening with the trust, and a trustee who stonewalls you is not exercising discretion. They are breaching a duty.
An accounting petition is also the cheapest serious step in trust litigation, which is why I so often start there instead of with the removal case the client came in asking for.
What you are owed
A California trustee generally must account at least annually to the beneficiaries currently entitled to income or principal, on a change of trustee, and when the trust terminates. Separate from formal accountings, a trustee has an ongoing duty to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed and to provide the terms of the trust and information about assets on reasonable request.
Trust documents sometimes try to waive the accounting requirement, and many of them do waive it. That is not the end of the road. A court retains authority to compel an account where circumstances warrant, and the duty to respond to reasonable requests for information does not vanish because paragraph nine says it does.
What a real accounting contains
- A statement of assets and liabilities at the beginning of the period
- All receipts, itemized, including rents, interest, dividends, and sale proceeds
- All disbursements, itemized, including taxes, repairs, insurance, and professional fees
- Gains and losses on sale
- Assets on hand at the end of the period, at carry value
- Compensation paid to the trustee and to any agents the trustee hired
- The notice language warning you of the limited window to object
A spreadsheet emailed by a brother with round numbers and no supporting statements is not an accounting. It may be perfectly honest. It is still not the document the law requires, and accepting it can cost you the ability to question the entries later.
Do not let the objection window pass
Once a proper account is served with the required notice, you have a limited period to object before the entries in it become much harder to challenge. Beneficiaries file these in a drawer and call me nine months later. If a document arrives that looks like an accounting, treat the arrival date as a deadline, not as a piece of mail.
The sequence
- Send a written demand for an accounting and for the trust instrument, dated, with proof of delivery
- Give the trustee a defined, reasonable period to comply, usually sixty days
- If nothing arrives, file a petition to compel the account in probate court
- If a deficient account arrives, file objections identifying specific entries rather than complaining generally
- Use the response, or the failure to respond, as the foundation for removal or surcharge if that is where this is heading
“About a third of the time, the demand letter alone fixes it. The trustee had no idea any of this was required, panics slightly, hires a competent attorney, and produces a real accounting within two months. That outcome costs the client a few hundred dollars instead of thirty thousand, and it is the reason I refuse to open with a lawsuit.”
Delia Vasquez-HartWhere beneficiaries have weaker rights
Not everyone gets the same access. If you are a remainder beneficiary who receives nothing until your stepmother dies, your entitlement to current accountings is thinner than that of a beneficiary receiving income now. Contingent interests are weaker still. Courts can still order information where the facts justify it, but you should know going in that your position is not identical to your half-sibling's.
During the settlor's lifetime, a revocable trust is generally accountable only to the settlor. Adult children who want to see their living parent's trust are usually entitled to nothing at all, and that surprises people every single week.
Questions we get asked
How much does an accounting petition cost?
It is hourly work, but it is the least expensive contested filing in this area because it turns on a document demand rather than on discovery. We will estimate a range for you in writing.
The trust waives accountings. Am I stuck?
Not necessarily. The waiver limits the automatic obligation, not the court's authority or the duty to respond to reasonable requests for information.
Can I get bank statements, not just a summary?
In litigation, yes, through discovery or a court order. Informally, a cooperative trustee will often provide them, and refusal to do so is itself informative.
The trustee says a lawyer told them not to talk to me. Now what?
That is a common and usually incorrect reading of the trustee's obligations. Put the demand in writing to the trustee and copy the attorney, and the answer typically changes.
Next step
Send the written demand before you hire anyone, and keep the certified mail receipt. If sixty days pass with nothing, bring the receipt and the trust to a free 45-minute consultation at 9454 Wilshire Blvd. Call (310) 555-0219.