What Section 736.1007 Covers
This is the provision that pays the lawyer who does the ordinary work after a death. Florida’s Fourth District quoted the operative sentence in 2012.
Section 736.1007 states that "[i]f the trustee of a revocable trust retains an attorney to render legal services in connection with the initial administration of the trust, the attorney is entitled to reasonable compensation for those legal services." § 736.1007(1), Fla. Stat. (2011).
Jervis v. Tucker, 82 So. 3d 126 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012).
Two features distinguish it from the rest of the fee cluster. It is an entitlement, not an application to a court. And it attaches to initial administration, the ordinary sequence of work that follows a settlor’s death, rather than to litigation.
In practice that means a trustee can retain counsel and the trust can pay, without a hearing, without beneficiary consent, and without anyone having done anything wrong. That is deliberate. Trust administration should not require a court proceeding to fund itself.
The statute separates the routine job from the unusual one. In addition to compensation for ordinary services, the trustee’s attorney is allowed further reasonable compensation for extraordinary service, and the statute gives a list of examples which is expressly not exhaustive.
Involvement in a trust contest is on that list. So is the kind of work that goes beyond collecting assets and filing returns.
That structure matters to both sides. For a trustee’s lawyer it means unusual work is not swallowed by an ordinary fee. For a beneficiary it means a bill that looks large may be two bills, and the question to ask is which services are being charged as extraordinary and why.
We describe the extraordinary services provision rather than quoting it here, because the most readily available online rendering of the Florida decision quoting it contains a bracketing error, and we would rather point you at the Legislature’s own text than reproduce a corrupted passage.
The Benefit Question, Where It Overlaps
In 2012 the Fourth District dealt with a fee motion that invoked this section and its neighbours together, quoted both, and then applied one condition.
We hold that if the trial court finds that counsel for appellant benefitted the trust, not just his client, through his representation, Jervis is entitled to attorneys' fees, pursuant to Florida Statutes.
Jervis v. Tucker, 82 So. 3d 126 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012).
That sentence is doing work across the fee cluster rather than for one section, and it is the single most quoted idea in this area, namely that the trust pays for work that helped the trust.
The same case is the anchor of our page on section 736.1005, where the benefit condition sits most naturally.
Three Amendments, and Why the Year Matters
This section has been amended three times since the Trust Code took effect on July 1, 2007, once in 2010, once in 2016 and once in 2021.
That is more movement than the provisions around it, and it has a practical consequence. A decision construing this section is construing the version the court had in front of it. The 2012 case quoted above applies the 2011 text, which predates two of the three amendments.
The histories of the neighbouring provisions differ again, which is why a general statement that the trust fee rules changed in some year is nearly always wrong until you name the section. Sections 736.1005 and 736.1006 were amended in 2015. Section 736.1004 has never been amended at all.
What Florida Courts Have Not Decided
On August 13, 2026 we searched Florida state and federal decisions for this section number, restricted to Florida courts, and found four records. Those resolve to three decisions, because one appears twice in the database as both a slip opinion and a reporter version.
None of them really construes the section. The 2012 Fourth District decision quotes subsection (1) and decides entitlement on the benefit condition it shares with the neighbouring provision. The 2015 Fourth District decision quotes the extraordinary services provision but decides the appeal on whether an objection to pleading had been waived. A federal decision cites the section in passing.
So we located no Florida decision construing what initial administration means, what makes a service extraordinary, or how reasonable compensation is measured under this section. Those questions are answered in practice by the trial courts and by fee agreements, not by appellate authority.
A section-number search does not find decisions that discuss a provision without naming it, and we have not run a citator pass.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Pays the Trustee s Lawyer in Florida?
The trust does, for ordinary administration. Section 736.1007(1) provides that if the trustee of a revocable trust retains an attorney to render legal services in connection with the initial administration of the trust, the attorney is entitled to reasonable compensation for those legal services. That is an entitlement rather than an application, and it does not require a court order or anybody s consent. It is the trust equivalent of the probate provision for an estate lawyer.
What Counts as Initial Administration?
The work that follows the settlor s death and turns a revocable trust into an administered one. Identifying and collecting assets, dealing with creditors and taxes, giving the notices the Code requires, and making distributions. The section is aimed at that ordinary sequence. Where the work stops being ordinary, the statute has a separate route for extraordinary services, and litigation over the trust is expressly on that list.
What Are Extraordinary Services?
A separate category with separate compensation. The statute provides that in addition to fees for ordinary services, the trustee s attorney is allowed further reasonable compensation for extraordinary service, and gives a non-exhaustive list which includes involvement in a trust contest. So a lawyer who administers a trust and then has to defend a challenge to it is not confined to the ordinary fee. The list is illustrative rather than closed.
Does the Work Have to Benefit the Trust?
For this section the entitlement is framed around services rendered in connection with the administration, but a Florida court has read this provision together with its neighbour and applied a single condition. In 2012 the Fourth District quoted both this section and section 736.1005 and then held that if the trial court found counsel had benefitted the trust, not just his client, the client was entitled to attorney s fees. If your work is being characterised as advancing one beneficiary rather than the trust, expect that framing to be used.
Has Section 736.1007 Changed Over Time?
Yes, three times since the Trust Code took effect, in 2010, 2016 and 2021. That is more movement than most of the sections around it, and it means a case interpreting the statute has to be read against the version the court had. The neighbouring fee provisions have their own separate histories. Sections 736.1005 and 736.1006 were amended in 2015, and section 736.1004 has never been amended at all. If someone tells you the trust fee rules changed in a particular year, the first question is which section they mean.
What Is the Difference Between This and the Other Fee Sections?
Four provisions, four jobs. This section is the trustee s own attorney in ordinary administration. Section 736.1005 is any attorney whose services benefited the trust, and it requires an application with contemporaneous service. Section 736.1004 is fees in actions for breach of fiduciary duty or challenging a trustee s exercise of powers. Section 736.1006 is costs. A fee claim pleaded under the wrong one can fail on that ground alone, and a Florida court has reversed an award for exactly that kind of mismatch.
Can Beneficiaries Object to the Trustee s Legal Fees?
They can, and there are two different routes depending on the situation. Where the fees are ordinary administration expenses, the objection is about reasonableness. Where the trustee is paying its own lawyer to defend a breach of trust claim made in a filed pleading, a different provision applies, section 736.0802(10), which requires notice to affected beneficiaries and gives them a route to ask the court to stop the payments and order a refund. Our page on the duty of loyalty sets that procedure out.
Common Situations
The trustee who has just been appointed. A daughter is successor trustee of her mother’s revocable trust and does not know where to start. The lawyer she retains for that work is entitled to be paid from the trust under this section, without a court order, which is worth knowing before she pays out of pocket.
The bill that doubled. A beneficiary sees the trust’s legal costs jump. The question to ask is whether part of it is being charged as extraordinary services, and what those services were. The statute contemplates the distinction and expects it to be identifiable.
The contest that arrives mid administration. Somebody challenges the trust while the ordinary work is still going on. Involvement in a trust contest is an example the statute gives of extraordinary service, and separately, if the claim alleges breach of trust in a filed pleading, the notice procedure in section 736.0802(10) is triggered.
Sources of Law
- Fla. Stat. §736.1007 (trustee’s attorney fees, including subsection (1) on initial administration and the separate compensation for extraordinary services). Official text, Online Sunshine. History: s. 10, ch. 2006-217; s. 7, ch. 2010-122; s. 7, ch. 2016-189; s. 2, ch. 2021-145. Amended three times, so any decision must be read against the version in force when it was decided. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Related sections from the same official source: §736.1005 (attorney fees for services to the trust); §736.1006 (costs); §736.1004 (fees in breach actions); §736.0802 (duty of loyalty, including the subsection (10) procedure where a trustee pays its own fees after a breach claim is filed). (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Jervis v. Tucker, 82 So. 3d 126 (Fla. 4th DCA Feb. 8, 2012), No. 4D10-392, Polen, J. Quoted above for subsection (1) and for the benefit condition, applying the 2011 text, which predates two of the three amendments to this section. Source caveat: the online rendering breaks a word across a page marker within the benefit sentence; that artifact has been closed in the quotation and the fact recorded in our corpus. Source: CourtListener. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Van Vechten v. Anyzeski, 157 So. 3d 350 (Fla. 4th DCA Jan. 21, 2015), Nos. 4D13-2980 and 4D13-3520, Gerber, J. Referred to above without quotation. It quotes the extraordinary services provision but construes none of the fee sections, deciding the appeal on waiver of a pleading objection. Source caveat: the reporter-version rendering of its quotation of the extraordinary services provision contains a bracketing error, which is why the extraordinary services concept is described on this page in our own words rather than quoted from the opinion. That decision appears as two records in CourtListener, the slip opinion and the reporter version, which are the same decision. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Gap note, stated for the record: four Florida records cite this section, resolving to three decisions, and all were read. We located no Florida decision construing what initial administration means under this section, what makes a service extraordinary, or how reasonable compensation is measured. 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 a Florida court’s own published words and the Legislature’s own statutory text. Nothing is drawn from a headnote, case summary, or other editorial layer of a commercial research service. Where an online rendering contains a character-level extraction error, this page describes the provision rather than quoting the affected passage.
- Nothing on this page predicts a result. What compensation is reasonable depends on the work, the trust and the circumstances.
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. What the initial administration of a trust requires depends on the document and the assets, which we review at a free consult. Please do not send confidential details until we have connected.
