Your mom just died. But thank goodness she had a living trust. And now it's your job to administer it. She named you as her successor trustee. No surprise. She told you she wanted to name you, and you agreed. But it was something out in the future and not real. Now it's real. You are the successor trustee.
You're about to meet with the attorney you will hire to help you with the trust administration. Leading up to the meeting, you've been all over Google, ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok to research what you need to do. One phrase that keeps popping up is "fiduciary duty." You've read that you have a fiduciary duty to the trust beneficiaries - your brother and sister. But what exactly is a fiduciary duty?
Put simply, a fiduciary duty is a higher-than-normal duty. It's an elevated duty where you must put the interests of the trust beneficiaries above your personal interest. Now, if you are one of the beneficiaries, you also have a fiduciary duty to yourself. But in that case, you are wearing two hats: trustee and beneficiary. As trustee, you have a fiduciary duty to all the beneficiaries. You can't favor yourself as trustee, or yourself as one of several beneficiaries. You must administer the trust fairly for all beneficiaries.
The duty exists because of the role you accepted. As we explain in our guide to what a California successor trustee is, the moment you accept the job, you take on legal obligations that a family member simply helping out informally would not have. The California Probate Code spells out those obligations.
Here are the core duties of a trustee under the California Probate Code:
16000. On acceptance of the trust, the trustee has a duty to administer the trust according to the trust instrument and, except to the extent the trust instrument provides otherwise, according to this division.
16002(a). The trustee has a duty to administer the trust solely in the interest of the beneficiaries.
16004(a). The trustee has a duty not to use or deal with trust property for the trustee’s own profit or for any other purpose unconnected with the trust, nor to take part in any transaction in which the trustee has an interest adverse to the beneficiary.
16003. If a trust has two or more beneficiaries, the trustee has a duty to deal impartially with them and shall act impartially in investing and managing the trust property, taking into account any differing interests of the beneficiaries.
16040. The trustee shall administer the trust with reasonable care, skill, and caution under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity would use in the conduct of an enterprise of like character and with like aims to accomplish the purposes of the trust as determined from the trust instrument.
Here are the additional, more detailed duties under the California Probate Code:
16006. The trustee has a duty to take reasonable steps under the circumstances to take and keep control of and to preserve the trust property.
Before you can protect trust property, you have to know what it is. Our guide to locating, protecting, and valuing trust assets walks through that process step by step.
16007. The trustee has a duty to make the trust property productive under the circumstances and in furtherance of the purposes of the trust.
16009. The trustee has a duty to do the following:
(a) To keep the trust property separate from other property not subject to the trust.
(b) To see that the trust property is designated as property of the trust.
This is why one of the first practical steps is opening a dedicated trust bank account. See our post on how to open a trust bank account in California after death.
16010. The trustee has a duty to take reasonable steps to enforce claims that are part of the trust property.
16011. The trustee has a duty to take reasonable steps to defend actions that may result in a loss to the trust.
16012(a). The trustee has a duty not to delegate to others the performance of acts that the trustee can reasonably be required personally to perform and may not transfer the office of trustee to another person nor delegate the entire administration of the trust to a cotrustee or other person.
(b) In a case where a trustee has properly delegated a matter to an agent, cotrustee, or other person, the trustee has a duty to exercise general supervision over the person performing the delegated matter.
16013. If a trust has more than one trustee, each trustee has a duty to do the following:
(a) To participate in the administration of the trust.
(b) To take reasonable steps to prevent a cotrustee from committing a breach of trust or to compel a cotrustee to redress a breach of trust.
16060. The trustee has a duty to keep the beneficiaries of the trust reasonably informed of the trust and its administration.
16062(a). Except as otherwise provided in this section and in Section 16064, the trustee shall account at least annually, at the termination of the trust, and upon a change of trustee, to each beneficiary to whom income or principal is required or authorized in the trustee’s discretion to be currently distributed.
These two duties, keeping beneficiaries informed and accounting to them, are where most trustee-beneficiary friction starts. We've handled enough of these disputes that we wrote about what these duties look like in practice, including a few families who took it about as far as it can go, in Trustee's Duty to Beneficiaries in California.
16046(a). Except as provided in subdivision (b), a trustee who invests and manages trust assets owes a duty to the beneficiaries of the trust to comply with the prudent investor rule.
16047(a). A trustee shall invest and manage trust assets as a prudent investor would, by considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements, and other circumstances of the trust. In satisfying this standard, the trustee shall exercise reasonable care, skill, and caution.
16080. Except as provided in Section 16081, a discretionary power conferred upon a trustee is not left to the trustee’s arbitrary discretion, but shall be exercised reasonably.
16081(a). Subject to the additional requirements of subdivisions (b), (c), and (d), if a trust instrument confers “absolute,” “sole,” or “uncontrolled” discretion on a trustee, the trustee shall act in accordance with fiduciary principles and shall not act in bad faith or in disregard of the purposes of the trust.
You do not have to memorize every section of the Probate Code. You do need to understand that the role carries real legal weight. The duties above are not suggestions. They are the standards a court will use if a beneficiary later challenges your decisions.
Most successor trustees handle the job successfully by doing three things early:
The first thirty days set the tone for everything that follows. Our practical walkthrough is here: The First 30 Days as a California Successor Trustee. For the longer view, see the full California Trustee Timeline: Day 1 Through Day 180.
If you have been named successor trustee of a California trust and would like help understanding your responsibilities and next steps, Contact Us or call (800) 394-1988 to schedule a free initial call with one of our estate planning attorneys.