Trustee
Updated June 7, 2026
What a trustee does
- Holds and manages trust assets according to the trust document.
- Makes distributions to beneficiaries as directed — or at their discretion, if the trust grants it.
- Keeps records, files any required tax returns for the trust, and accounts to the beneficiaries.
- Acts with loyalty and prudence — the trustee's own interests cannot compete with those of the trust.
Serving as your own trustee
With a revocable living trust, you typically name yourself as the initial trustee and manage your own assets during your lifetime. You also name a successor trustee — the person who steps in when you are no longer able to act, or when you pass. Choosing a capable successor and making sure they can find the trust document are among the most important steps in a trust plan.
Related terms
- Successor Trustee — A successor trustee is the person or institution named in a trust document to step in and manage the trust when the original trustee can no longer serve — typically because of death, incapacity, or resignation. In a revocable living trust where the grantor serves as their own initial trustee, the successor trustee is the person who carries out the trust's instructions after the grantor's death.
- Living Trust — A living trust is a legal arrangement created during a person's lifetime in which they transfer ownership of their assets to the trust — typically naming themselves as the initial trustee — to be managed for their benefit while alive and distributed to named beneficiaries when they die, all without going through probate. Because the trust, not the individual, holds the assets, those assets pass directly to beneficiaries outside of the probate process.
- Testamentary Trust — A testamentary trust is a trust created by the instructions in a will, which comes into existence only after the testator dies and the will has been admitted to probate. Unlike a living trust, it does not exist during the testator's lifetime and does not avoid probate — the assets must pass through probate before they can be transferred into the trust.
- Beneficiary — A beneficiary is a person or organization designated to receive an asset or benefit from a will, trust, life insurance policy, retirement account, or other arrangement. Being named a beneficiary gives someone a legal right to receive that specific asset — often outside of probate — when the owner passes.
Legatus Vault keeps your wills, trusts, and estate documents in one secure place and releases them — only when the time comes, and only after careful verification — to the people you choose.