Three yardsticks in one sentence
In administering a trust, the trustee shall only incur expenses that are reasonable in relation to the trust property, the purposes of the trust, and the skills of the trustee.
Section 736.0805, Florida Statutes. Enacted in 2006 and never amended since.
Reasonableness here is not free floating. The statute names three things to measure against, and they pull in different directions.
The trust property makes size part of the standard. The same expense can be reasonable in a trust holding several million dollars and unreasonable in one holding sixty thousand. The Legislature carried that logic further in section 736.0414, which lets a trustee terminate a trust outright where its value cannot justify the cost of administering it.
The purposes of the trust ask what the money is being spent toward. A trust created to hold and maintain a family property will support expenses that a trust created to hold marketable securities and distribute income would not.
The third yardstick is about the trustee
The last limb is the one worth pausing on, because it does not describe the trust at all. Expenses must be reasonable in relation to the skills of the trustee.
That connects directly to section 736.0806, under which a trustee who has special skills, or who was named in reliance on their representation of special skills, must use them. Read the two together and a pattern appears. A professional trustee who was appointed because of claimed expertise, and who then pays an outside adviser to do the very thing that expertise covers, is charging the trust for something the appointment already paid for.
The reverse is also true and is worth saying, because it protects ordinary trustees. A family member serving without any relevant background is measured against that. Hiring an accountant, a lawyer or an investment adviser is not extravagance when the trustee has no professional skill of their own to apply, and section 736.0807 expressly permits delegation.
This is not the trustee’s fee
The two questions get run together constantly and the law treats them separately. What the trustee is paid comes under section 736.0708, where the Second District has held that reasonableness is decided on a multi factor test rather than by hours times a rate. What the trust spends on administration comes under this section. A trustee can have a defensible fee and indefensible expenses, or the reverse.
Both show up in the same place. Under section 736.08135(2)(b) the accounting must show all cash and property transactions and all significant transactions affecting administration during the period, including compensation paid to the trustee and to the trustee’s agents. That is usually where a beneficiary first sees the shape of the spending.
No Florida court has construed this section
Our review found no decision citing section 736.0805, in the Florida state courts, the Florida federal district and bankruptcy courts, or the Eleventh Circuit, searching every precedential status rather than the default view.
So the questions a beneficiary would actually bring are open. Whether an expense that fails this section is recoverable from the trustee personally, or merely disallowed. Whether the three yardsticks are cumulative, so that an expense must satisfy all of them, or whether a court weighs them together. Whether a trustee who obtained the beneficiaries’ agreement to an expense is protected. And how this section interacts with an exculpation clause under section 736.1011. None of that has been decided in Florida under this section number.
Frequently Asked Questions
What expenses can a Florida trustee charge to the trust?
Only reasonable ones, measured a particular way. Section 736.0805 provides that in administering a trust, the trustee shall only incur expenses that are reasonable in relation to the trust property, the purposes of the trust, and the skills of the trustee. All three are part of the test.
Is this the same as the trustee’s fee?
No. Trustee compensation is governed by section 736.0708 and is measured against a multi factor test the Second District adopted from West Coast Hospital Association. This section is about the expenses of running the trust, meaning what the trustee spends on third parties and on administration, not what the trustee pays themselves.
What does “in relation to the trust property” mean?
It makes the size of the trust part of the standard. An expense that would be sensible for a large trust can be unreasonable for a small one, because the statute asks about proportion rather than about the expense in isolation. Section 736.0414 takes the same idea further and allows an uneconomic trust to be terminated where administration cost cannot be justified at all.
Why do the trustee’s skills matter to what may be spent?
Because a trustee who holds themselves out as having expertise is expected to use it, under section 736.0806. If a professional trustee pays an outside adviser for work their own claimed expertise covers, the proportionality question is different from the same expense incurred by a family member with no relevant background.
Where do I see what the trustee has spent?
In the accounting. Section 736.08135(2)(b) requires the accounting to show all cash and property transactions and all significant transactions affecting administration during the period, including compensation paid to the trustee and the trustee’s agents.
Common Situations
A small trust with professional fees eating the income. Proportion is written into the statute, and section 736.0414 addresses the extreme case.
A corporate trustee outsourcing work it was hired for. The skills limb, read with section 736.0806, is the argument.
A family trustee hiring an accountant. Delegation is permitted under section 736.0807 and the skills limb cuts in this trustee’s favour.
Expenses you cannot identify in the accounting. Section 736.08135(2)(b) requires them to be shown, including what was paid to the trustee’s agents.
Sources of Law
- Section 736.0805, Florida Statutes (2025). Enacted by s. 8, ch. 2006-217, and never amended since.
- Section 736.0806, Florida Statutes, on a trustee’s special skills.
- Section 736.0708, Florida Statutes, on trustee compensation, which is a separate question.
- Section 736.08135(2)(b), Florida Statutes, requiring expenses and agent compensation to be shown in the accounting.
- Our review searched the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida District Courts of Appeal, the Florida federal district courts, the Florida bankruptcy courts and the Eleventh Circuit on August 14, 2026, requesting every precedential status rather than the default view. We report a nil result as our own review and not as a certainty. Searching by section number is an imperfect tool in two known ways. It misses decisions that discuss a statute without naming it, and we have confirmed at least one Florida decision that names a section yet does not appear in a search for that number.
- Decisions discussed here are published opinions in other parties’ cases. They are not matters handled by this firm and they predict nothing about any reader’s case. No commercial citator pass has been run on this research.
Updated on August 14, 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. Reading this page does not make us your lawyers. Please do not send confidential details until we have connected.
