Page 49 - Successor Trustee Handbook

If you have good reason to believe that an action you intend to take may somehow
violate or appear to violate either your Trustee duties or powers, you should have an
attorney assist you in sending a “Notice of Intended Action” to the beneficiaries.
Then, if you do not receive any objections within a certain period of time, you may
proceed without liability so long as you do so exactly in accordance with the terms
of your notice. In some cases, you might want to go the extra step of having the
Probate Court approve your intended action before carrying it out. This gives the
beneficiaries a forum to protest the action, provided they do so within a limited
period of time, and makes it much more difficult for them to later argue that they
were not given proper notice, or they did not have an opportunity to obtain their
own legal counsel and timely object to the action. In most cases, if you simply keep
beneficiaries informed of what you are doing or intend to do, their consent may be
amicably obtained without the need for formal written notice or a Court order (see
the Chapter, “Tips on Working Successfully With the Beneficiaries”). If you wish to
protect yourself and the Trust and its beneficiaries, in the event you may be
accused of or held liable for an act or omission, you may want to obtain a “fidelity
bond” or “errors and omissions insurance”. These may not be required by the Trust
document, but may be a good idea if you can obtain them at a reasonable cost;
the expense of these may not be payable by the Trust and you should ask your
attorney beforehand.

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