Who files, and when
Upon the death of a settlor of a trust described in s. 733.707(3), the trustee must file a notice of trust with the court of the county of the settlor’s domicile and the court having jurisdiction of the settlor’s estate.
Section 736.05055(1), Florida Statutes.
The trigger is the settlor’s death and the obligation sits on the trustee. Note that two courts are named, which will usually be the same court and will not always be, and that the duty attaches to a trust described in section 733.707(3), the provision under which a revocable trust becomes liable for the expenses of estate administration and the settlor’s obligations where the estate itself cannot cover them.
That connection explains the whole section. The notice exists because a Florida revocable trust is a potential source of payment for the settlor’s debts, and the probate process needs to know it is there.
What it contains, and what it does not
The notice of trust must contain the name of the settlor, the settlor’s date of death, the title of the trust, if any, the date of the trust, and the name and address of the trustee.
Section 736.05055(2), Florida Statutes.
Five items and the list is closed. There is nothing here about who the beneficiaries are, what the trust holds, or what it says. A family worried that filing will make their affairs public should know that the notice discloses the existence of a trust and how to reach the trustee, and no more than that.
What happens after it is filed
Subsections (3) to (5) are addressed to the clerk and are worth knowing because they determine who finds out. If a probate proceeding has been commenced, the clerk notifies the trustee in writing of the commencement date and the file number. The clerk files and indexes the notice in the same manner as a caveat, unless a probate proceeding for the settlor’s estate exists, in which case the notice goes into the probate proceeding and the clerk sends a copy to the personal representative. And the clerk sends a copy of any caveat filed regarding the settlor to the trustee, and the notice of trust to any caveator, unless a probate proceeding is pending and the personal representative and the trustee are the same person.
The effect is a two way link. The trustee learns that an estate has been opened, and the estate and anyone who has filed a caveat learn that a trust exists.
The consequence of not filing
Nothing in the section fines a trustee who does not file, and nothing invalidates the trust or unseats the trustee. It would be easy to conclude the requirement has no teeth. It has teeth, and they are in subsection (6).
Any proceeding affecting the expenses of the administration or obligations of the settlor’s estate prior to the trustee filing a notice of trust are binding on the trustee.
Section 736.05055(6), Florida Statutes.
Read that against what the trust is exposed to. Under section 733.707(3) the trust may have to pay estate administration expenses and the settlor’s obligations. Subsection (6) says that proceedings determining those amounts, held before the trustee filed, bind the trustee anyway. The trustee did not appear, may not have known, and is bound.
The trustee’s failure to file the notice of trust does not affect the trustee’s obligation to pay expenses of administration and obligations of the settlor’s estate as provided in s. 733.607(2).
Section 736.05055(7), Florida Statutes.
So the liability survives the omission while the opportunity to be heard does not. A trustee who files promptly gets notice of the probate case and a seat at the table. A trustee who does not file keeps every obligation and loses the chance to contest how those obligations were fixed.
No Florida court has construed this section
Our review of the Florida state courts, the Florida federal district and bankruptcy courts and the Eleventh Circuit, requesting every precedential status rather than the default view, returned no decision citing section 736.05055.
Given subsection (6) that is a meaningful silence. Nobody has decided how far it reaches, whether a trustee bound by a proceeding they never attended has any route to relief, whether the words describe only proceedings in the estate or reach any proceeding affecting those expenses, or what happens where the trustee had actual notice of the probate case but had not yet filed. There is also no authority on how promptly the notice must be filed, since the statute says only that it happens upon the settlor’s death.