 You need to know the basics of a trust administration, whether you're a settler, that's the person who sets up a trust, or the trustee, the person that manages the trust. So let's go over the basic steps in a trust administration. A trust administration usually involves a team, depends on the size of the trust, but in many cases it's the trustee, the attorney, the CPA, and the financial planner. They all work together as a team to ensure the trust administration is done correctly. What are the main steps in a trust administration? Well, number one is follow the language of the trust. It's very explicit. The trust should say who gets what and how that person receives those assets. Number two, follow state, local, and federal rules and procedures and guidelines. Sometimes those conflict with the trust and that has to be ironed out. That's where that team approach comes into play. Number three, locate, control, value, and allocate the assets of the trust. So the assets of the trust have to be located. Are they in banks? Are they in brokerage houses? Are they pieces of property? They have to come under the control of the trustee. We've got to make sure the trustee's name is associated with the assets. The assets have to be valued. What's the value of the particular piece of property, bank account, or stock account, when someone passed away? And then what do we do with those assets? Do they go to the survivor? Do they go to the children? Those assets have to be allocated. Four, set up procedures so that ongoing trusts like children's trusts and survivor's trusts are properly managed and will run smoothly by the trustee. The trustee should be given guidelines and rules to follow. And that's the time when the trustee would interact with a financial planner to make sure that the assets are productive and bringing the income into the beneficiaries as required under the trust instrument. A trust administration is a difficult time. There are filings and deadlines and allocations and values and state, federal and local laws. So much, so complex that having an experienced a state planning attorney in this process as part of your team member is vital. If you're a trustee in a trust administration or will be in the future and you have questions, give my office a call for a free one-half hour review. We'll go over the trust, answer your questions and hopefully make your job a little easier.