Florida Successor Trustee

What a Successor Trustee Is

A revocable living trust usually names its creator, the grantor, as the first trustee. The grantor keeps full control of the trust property for life. The successor trustee is the person the trust names to take over when the grantor stops serving, by incapacity, death or resignation.

Florida sets the order when a trusteeship falls vacant and no co-trustee remains. The vacancy goes first to the person the trust names as successor. If nobody named can serve, the qualified beneficiaries may appoint someone by unanimous agreement, and failing that the court appoints one. That is why a well drafted trust names at least two successors in order.

The statute lists what creates a vacancy. A named trustee declines, cannot be identified or does not exist, resigns, is disqualified or removed, dies, or is adjudicated to be incapacitated.

Taking Over While the Grantor Is Alive

This is the part of the job most families meet first, and the one the trust document decides. Most living trusts include an incapacity clause, commonly a written finding by one or two physicians that the grantor can no longer manage the trust. When that finding is made, the successor takes over under the trust’s own terms, with no court involved.

Without an incapacity clause, Florida’s trust code treats a trustee’s incapacity as a vacancy only once it is adjudicated, meaning a court has decided it. For a grantor who is serving as trustee, that can mean a guardianship proceeding, which is the court process a living trust is usually meant to avoid. Reading the incapacity clause is the first thing a named successor should do.

While the trust can still be revoked, the successor trustee’s duties are owed to the grantor alone. Your job at that stage is to manage the trust property for your parent, pay your parent’s bills from it, and keep records. The beneficiaries who will inherit later do not direct you while the trust remains revocable.

A power of attorney does not do this job. A durable power of attorney lets an agent act for your parent personally, but the trust property belongs to the trust, and some banks will not honor a power of attorney on a trust account at all. Ally Bank, for example, says it will not accept a power of attorney on accounts for formal trusts. The successor trustee is the one who acts. Our guide to Florida powers of attorney covers what the agent handles outside the trust.

Accepting or Declining the Job

Being named is not the same as accepting. You accept by following the method the trust provides for acceptance, or, if the trust has none or its method is not the only one, by taking delivery of the trust property, exercising a trustee’s powers or performing a trustee’s duties.

You may decline instead. If you do not accept within a reasonable time after you learn you were named, the law treats you as having declined. A person who has not yet decided may act to preserve the trust property, such as securing a house or paying an insurance premium, without accepting, but only if they send a qualified beneficiary a written statement declining the trusteeship within a reasonable time after acting. They may also inspect the property to find out what it involves.

A successor trustee is not required to post a bond unless a court finds one is needed to protect the beneficiaries, or the trust requires one and the court has not waived it.

Proving Your Authority to Banks and Brokers

Banks and brokers need to see that you are now the trustee. The usual package is a new certification of trust signed by you as the currently acting trustee, the proof the trust requires for the change, such as the physicians’ letters for incapacity or a certified death certificate, and your identification. Florida law protects a bank that relies on a certification in good faith, which is why the certification carries most of the weight.

Each bank has its own forms. Wells Fargo, for example, lists a death certificate and a Certification of Trustee form naming the successor trustee for a trust account when a trustee dies, and Ally uses a Trust/Trustee Maintenance Form. Our guide to opening a trust account quotes what Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Ally require.

Your Duties Once You Accept

Once you accept, you must administer the trust in good faith, following its terms and purposes and the interests of the beneficiaries. The duty of loyalty is the one that decides most disputes. You must administer the trust solely in the beneficiaries’ interests, and a sale or other transaction for your own account, or one affected by a conflict between your role and your own interests, can be undone by an affected beneficiary unless one of the statute’s exceptions applies, such as the trust authorizing it or the grantor consenting in writing while the trust was revocable.

In practice that means keeping the trust’s money in the trust’s accounts, not borrowing from it, not buying trust property yourself without clear authority, and keeping a record of every payment.

When the Grantor Dies

At the grantor’s death the trust usually becomes irrevocable, and the successor trustee’s duties turn toward the beneficiaries. Within 60 days of learning that the trust has become irrevocable, the trustee must notify the qualified beneficiaries of the trust’s existence, the settlor’s identity, their right to request a copy of the trust instrument and their right to accountings. A trustee of an irrevocable trust must give the qualified beneficiaries an accounting at least annually, and when the trust ends or the trustee changes.

The rest of the process, including the notice of trust filed with the court, how long administration takes and when beneficiaries can no longer sue, is in our guide to Florida trust administration.

Getting Paid, and Stepping Down

If the trust sets your compensation, you are paid as it says, though a court may allow more or less if the job turns out substantially different from what was expected or the set amount is unreasonably low or high. If the trust says nothing, you are entitled to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances, and to separate reasonable pay for other services you perform for the trust. Our page on Florida trustee fees covers what reasonable tends to mean.

To resign, follow the trust’s procedure and give the notice it requires. Whatever the trust says, you may also resign on at least 30 days’ notice to the qualified beneficiaries, the settlor if living, and all co-trustees, or with the court’s approval. Resigning does not discharge liability for anything you did or failed to do while you served.

Related Guides

• Florida trust administration after a death
• Florida certification of trust
• Florida trustee fees
• Florida trust beneficiary rights
• How to open a trust account at a bank

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The trust with no incapacity clause. A mother’s older trust names her daughter as successor trustee but says nothing about incapacity. When the mother develops dementia, the statute counts the vacancy only once incapacity is adjudicated, so the daughter may need a court proceeding to take over the trust that was meant to keep the family out of court. A restatement signed while the mother still had capacity would have added a physicians’ letter test.

The son who paid the roof first. A son named as successor trustee pays for an emergency roof repair on his late father’s house before deciding whether to serve. Acting to preserve the property without accepting is allowed if he then sends a beneficiary a written statement declining, so he either accepts the trusteeship or sends that statement within a reasonable time.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §736.0704 (annotated) (vacancy in trusteeship; (1) events including a trustee adjudicated to be incapacitated; (2) vacancy need not be filled while a co-trustee remains; (3) order of priority for a noncharitable trust).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0603 (annotated)(1) (while a trust is revocable, the trustee’s duties are owed exclusively to the settlor).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0701 (annotated) (accepting or declining trusteeship; (1) acceptance by the trust’s method or by conduct; (2) declining, and deemed declination; (3) acting to preserve trust property with a written statement declining, and inspection).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0702 (annotated)(1) (bond only if the court finds it needed, or required by the trust and not dispensed with).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0801 (annotated) (duty to administer in good faith); §736.0802 (annotated)(1)-(2) (duty of loyalty; conflicted transactions voidable, with exceptions).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0813 (annotated)(1)(a)-(d) (notice of acceptance within 60 days; notice within 60 days after a trust becomes irrevocable; copy of the instrument on request; annual accountings for an irrevocable trust).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0708 (annotated)(1)-(3) (trustee compensation).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0705 (annotated) (resignation; 30 days’ notice or court approval; liability not discharged).
• Fla. Stat. §736.1017 (annotated) (certification of trust; reliance protection).
• Ally Bank Deposit Agreement, PDF p. 42 (no power of attorney on accounts for formal trusts); Wells Fargo Estate Care Center checklist, p. 2. Quotations and links are on each bank’s page. Retrieved September 24 and 25, 2026.

Updated on September 28, 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, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.