What Section 736.0506 Says
Here are the two subsections in full, from the Legislature's own text.
(1) As used in this section, the term "mandatory distribution" means a distribution of income or principal the trustee is required to make to a beneficiary under the terms of the trust, including a distribution on termination of the trust. The term does not include a distribution subject to the exercise of the trustee's discretion, even if:
(a) The discretion is expressed in the form of a standard of distribution; or
(b) The terms of the trust authorizing a distribution couple language of discretion with language of direction.
(2) A creditor or assignee of a beneficiary may reach a mandatory distribution of income or principal, including a distribution upon termination of the trust, if the trustee has not made the distribution to the beneficiary within a reasonable time after the designated distribution date, whether or not a trust contains a spendthrift provision.
Subsection (2) is the rule. Subsection (1) is the definition it turns on, and the definition is doing more work than it looks.
Why This Section Exists
A drafter of the Florida Trust Code set out the problem before the code took effect, and it is the clearest statement of purpose available.
The first exception applies to overdue mandatory distributions. Although a spendthrift provision prevents a beneficiary's creditor from attaching or garnishing the beneficiary's interest in a trust, it does not protect trust income or principal after it has been distributed to the beneficiary. For that reason, a sympathetic trustee might be tempted to delay required distributions to spendthrift beneficiaries to frustrate or impede the beneficiaries' creditors' efforts to reach the distributions. Code §736.0506 is intended to prevent this.
David F. Powell, The New Florida Trust Code, Part 1, 80 Fla. B.J. 7 (July/August 2006).
Note the word sympathetic. The section is not aimed at dishonest trustees so much as at helpful ones, the family member who would rather the money stayed where a creditor cannot see it.
Mandatory or Discretionary, and Why It Decides Everything
Everything turns on whether the trustee had a choice. If the distribution was discretionary, this section does not apply and Fla. Stat. 736.0504 gives the creditor a firmly unhelpful answer.
What makes subsection (1) worth reading closely is that the Legislature anticipated documents drafted to blur the line. It closes two routes explicitly. A distribution stays discretionary even where the discretion is expressed as a standard, such as health, education, maintenance and support. And it stays discretionary even where the trust couples language of discretion with language of direction, which is the drafting habit of saying the trustee shall distribute such amounts as the trustee in its sole discretion deems appropriate.
The same drafter noted the point in a footnote.
It is immaterial for this purpose that the discretion is subject to a standard or that it is coupled with language of direction. §736.0506(1).
David F. Powell, The New Florida Trust Code, Part 1, 80 Fla. B.J. 7 (July/August 2006), n.45.
So for a creditor this is a narrower tool than it first appears. It reaches the trust that says pay my son $5,000 a month, or distribute the remainder on his thirtieth birthday. It does not reach the trust that leaves the trustee genuinely in charge.
What Reasonable Time Means
The statute gives a creditor the right once the trustee has failed to distribute within a reasonable time after the designated distribution date. It does not define reasonable time, and we located no Florida decision construing it under this section.
That is worth stating plainly rather than filling with generalities. In practice the argument starts with the designated distribution date in the document, which is usually clear, and then turns on what the trustee did and why. A trustee resolving a genuine question about a beneficiary's identity or a tax issue is in a different position from a trustee whose distributions stopped in the month a writ of garnishment landed. The timeline is the evidence.
What Florida Courts Have Said
Almost nothing, and that is the finding.
On August 13, 2026 we searched Florida state and federal decisions for this section number, restricted to Florida courts. One case came back, the Fourth District's 2010 decision in Miller v. Kresser, which is the leading Florida case on discretionary trusts and creditors. It cites this section once, in passing, for the mandatory distribution exception while deciding something else.
So there is no Florida decision construing what a reasonable time is, or how a court should treat a document that hovers between mandatory and discretionary. The statute is clear enough that this may simply mean the point rarely reaches an appellate court. It also means that if your situation turns on this section, the argument is built from the text and the trust rather than from precedent.
A search of this kind does not find decisions that discuss a provision without naming it, and we have not run a citator pass, so this is a careful review on a stated date rather than a guarantee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Creditor Reach a Trust Distribution That Was Never Paid?
Yes, if it was a mandatory distribution and the trustee has sat on it. Section 736.0506(2) says a creditor or assignee of a beneficiary may reach a mandatory distribution of income or principal, including a distribution upon termination of the trust, if the trustee has not made the distribution within a reasonable time after the designated distribution date, whether or not the trust contains a spendthrift provision. Those last words are the point. A spendthrift clause does not protect a distribution the trustee should already have made.
What Counts as a Mandatory Distribution in Florida?
Subsection (1) defines it as a distribution of income or principal the trustee is required to make to a beneficiary under the terms of the trust, including a distribution on termination of the trust. The definition then excludes anything subject to the exercise of the trustee's discretion, and it closes two escape routes. It still counts as discretionary even if the discretion is expressed in the form of a standard of distribution, and even if the terms coupling a distribution use language of discretion together with language of direction. So the drafting question is genuinely whether the trustee had a choice, and a document that says both things at once is treated as discretionary.
How Long Is a Reasonable Time?
The statute does not say, and we located no Florida decision construing it under this section. That is an unsatisfying answer and it is the true one. In practice the analysis starts with the designated distribution date in the trust, then looks at what the trustee actually did and why. A trustee with a genuine administrative reason for delay is in a different position from one who stopped distributing the month a garnishment was served. Since there is no appellate gloss, the facts and the document carry the argument.
Does a Spendthrift Clause Protect an Overdue Distribution?
No. The section says a creditor may reach it whether or not a trust contains a spendthrift provision. That is a deliberate exception to the protection in Fla. Stat. 736.0502, and a drafter of the Trust Code described its purpose directly. Because a spendthrift clause does not protect money once distributed, a sympathetic trustee might be tempted to delay required distributions to frustrate creditors, and this section is intended to prevent that.
What if the Trustee Has Discretion Over the Distribution?
Then this section does not help a creditor, and a different one governs. Under Fla. Stat. 736.0504 a creditor may not compel a distribution that is subject to the trustee's discretion, whether or not the discretion is subject to a standard and whether or not the trustee has abused it. That is why the mandatory versus discretionary question decides these cases before anything else does, and why the first document to read is always the distribution provision itself.
Has Section 736.0506 Ever Been Amended?
No. It reads today exactly as the Legislature enacted it in chapter 2006-217, and it took effect with the rest of the Florida Trust Code on July 1, 2007. That is worth knowing because several of its neighbours have moved. Section 736.0501 was amended in 2007 and section 736.0502 in the same bill. This one has not been touched, so any decision construing it, whenever decided, is construing the current words.
Common Situations
The payments that stopped in the same month. A judgment creditor serves the trustee, and the monthly distributions that had run for six years stop immediately. If those payments were required by the trust rather than chosen by the trustee, this section is the answer to that timing, and the payment history is the evidence.
The trust that says shall, in the trustee's sole discretion. A creditor reads the word shall and assumes the distribution is mandatory. Subsection (1) says coupling direction with discretion does not make it mandatory. Whether that document creates an obligation or a choice is a real question, and it is decided on the whole instrument.
The termination distribution nobody made. A trust was to terminate and distribute on a date that has passed, and the trustee has kept the assets. The definition expressly includes a distribution on termination, so the same rule applies, and the designated date is usually easy to prove.
Sources of Law
- Fla. Stat. §736.0506 (overdue distribution: subsection (1) defines mandatory distribution and excludes discretionary distributions even where expressed as a standard or coupled with language of direction; subsection (2) allows a creditor to reach a mandatory distribution not made within a reasonable time after the designated distribution date, whether or not the trust contains a spendthrift provision). Official text, Online Sunshine. History: s. 5, ch. 2006-217. Never amended since the Florida Trust Code took effect on July 1, 2007. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Related sections from the same official source: §736.0502 (spendthrift provision); §736.0503 (exceptions for support claims); §736.0504 (discretionary trusts). (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Miller v. Kresser, 34 So. 3d 172 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010), which cites section 736.0506(2) at 175 for the mandatory distribution exception. Reading note: the citation is made in passing while the court decides a question about discretionary trusts and creditors. It does not construe this section, and this page does not present it as doing so. The decision is discussed in full on our §736.0504 page. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- David F. Powell, The New Florida Trust Code, Part 1, 80 Fla. B.J. 7 (July/August 2006), at 24, and note 45, quoted above for the purpose of the section and for the treatment of discretion coupled with direction. The author was a drafter of the code and the article was published before it took effect. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Gap note, stated for the record: a search of Florida state and federal decisions for this section number, restricted to Florida courts, returned one case on August 13, 2026, and it cites the section in passing. We located no Florida decision construing what constitutes a reasonable time under subsection (2), or applying the mandatory versus discretionary definition in subsection (1). A section-number search does not find decisions that discuss a provision without naming it, and no citator pass was run.
- Quotation note: the passages above reproduce the Legislature's own statutory text and a signed bar journal article by a named author. Nothing is drawn from a headnote, case summary, or other editorial layer of a commercial research service.
- Nothing on this page predicts a result. Whether a distribution was mandatory, and whether a delay was reasonable, depend on the trust and the facts.
Updated on August 13, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law and published court decisions, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Whether this section reaches a particular distribution depends on the trust's own terms, which we review at a free consult. Please do not send confidential details until we have connected.
