Page 37 - Successor Trustee Handbook

CHAPTER 8

TIPS ON WORKING SUCCESSFULLY

WITH THE BENEFICIARIES

It is important to, as much as possible, keep your Trustee relationship with the
beneficiaries on a “strictly business” level. Since the beneficiaries may be friends
or relatives of yours, inter-personal histories and previous emotional issues can
often surface and may make it difficult for you to carry out your duties. You can
keep these issues from flaring up and making the Trust administration more
difficult, if you follow these few, important tips below.

Be clear with the beneficiaries, from the very start, as to what will be your
responsibilities and what will be theirs. In particular, it’s important to
explain to them when and how you will be keeping them apprised of Trust
matters and, when appropriate and necessary, providing them with
financial accountings. Explain that they will be responsible, when
necessary, to assist you with collecting assets and information and they
must not interfere with your actions or take it upon themselves to gather
or sell Trust assets. You may wish to establish these respective
responsibilities by having one or more of the beneficiaries attend your
initial conference with the Trustor’s estate planning attorney (or other
attorney of your choosing). That way, the beneficiaries will be
immediately brought into the process, have it explained to them, and
questions and issues can be resolved up front before they become major
problems and conflicts. At this meeting, the attorney can also explain to
the beneficiaries that he does not represent them individually, only you as
the Trustee, and properly advise them of the need for them to obtain
separate legal counsel, if they so wish; this will help cut off your
responsibility and liability to answer beneficiaries’ questions and take
actions on behalf of the beneficiaries that go beyond your Trustee duties
and could eventually get you into trouble.

Manage the beneficiaries’ expectations. Again, the attorney may be
able to assist you here. The beneficiaries need to have a clear idea of
what the timing and manner of your response will be to their questions,
phone calls, e-mails, and other correspondence (also see the next tip
below). If a beneficiary will be having his or her inheritance held in Trust,
rather than distributed out directly to him or her, you should set up a
clearly defined system for periodic meetings, defer non-urgent matters
until then and use those times for determining their needs, paying their
bills and/or distributing money to them.
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