How do I resign as a trustee of a Florida trust? 10 Points for a Palm Beach Trustee to Consider when Resigning

If you are the trustee of a Florida trust, such as an irrevocable family trust, that your father’s Boca Raton estate attorney wrote, and you don’t want to be trustee anymore, do you know how to resign?  Resigning from being a trustee of a Florida trust can be very simple but there are traps for those trustees who may not know about Florida Trust Law.

1. Read the trust document; it probably has important imformation about how to resign.
2. Read the Florida Trust Code; it will tell you about your duties and rights as a Florida trustee.
3. Read Florida Trust Law 736.0705 which deals with resigning as a Florida trustee.
4. Who is the successor trustee?  Know you is taking your place. Remember: you can’t just throw up  your hands and walk away.  You owe it to your Florida trust beneficiaries to get the trust in good hands.  It’s your duty and you actually agreed to do this when you began your trusteeship.
5. Give notice to the trust beneficiaries that you are resigning.
6. Know if you can appoint a successor trustee to take your place or if the trust document has named a successor or if the benficiaries can choose their trustee.
7. If you can’t get a new or successor trustee to accept the trusteeship, consider filing a trust action in Palm Beach probate court to have the court appoint a new trustee.
8. Settle up.  Get released and have the probate court or the beneficiaries agree in writing that you can go and that they won’t sue you.
9. Finalize your accounting for the trust or if the beneficiaries don’t want a Florida trust accounting, get them to waive a trust accounting in writing.
10. File a limitations notice and a trust disclosure document if necessary. These are important Florida trust legal terms which your trust litigation law firm West Palm Beach will know about.