How Do I Get a Copy of a Trust in Florida?

1. Does a Trustee Have to Give a Beneficiary a Copy of the Trust?

Yes. Florida’s trust code requires the trustee to provide a qualified beneficiary with a complete copy of the trust instrument upon reasonable request. A complete copy means the whole document and every amendment, not a summary and not the few pages the trustee thinks matter.

Most of Florida’s trust rules can be changed by the person who writes the trust. The duty to hand over a copy is one of the exceptions. Florida lists it among the rules a trust cannot override, together with the 60-day notices and the annual accounting. A clause that says the trustee may keep the trust private from the children does not work once the trust is irrevocable.

The duty sits in the section on the trustee’s duty to inform and account, which opens with a broader rule. The trustee must keep the qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration. The copy of the trust is the starting point of that duty, because a beneficiary cannot check the trustee’s work without knowing what the trust tells the trustee to do.

2. Who Is Entitled to a Copy of a Trust?

A qualified beneficiary is entitled to a copy. The trust code’s definitions make a living beneficiary qualified in three situations.

1. A current beneficiary. Someone who receives, or may receive, income or principal now, such as a widow paid the income every month.
2. The next in line. Someone who would receive distributions if the current beneficiaries’ interests ended today without ending the trust.
3. The remainder. Someone who would receive distributions if the trust ended today under its terms, such as the children who take what is left after their mother’s lifetime trust.

A beneficiary two or three generations down, who would take only if several people died first, usually is not qualified, and the trustee does not owe that person the copy. A charity named in the trust has the same rights as a qualified beneficiary when it meets the same tests, which is the point of the case retold at the end of this page.

A child who was left out of the trust entirely is not a beneficiary and has no right to the copy under this section. A trustee often sends a copy anyway, together with a notice, because doing so starts a 6-month deadline to contest the trust. A child who receives that package should read the deadline on it the same day.

3. Can You Get a Copy While the Grantor Is Alive?

No, not while the trust is revocable. Florida says that while a trust is revocable, the trustee’s duties are owed exclusively to the grantor, and the duty to inform and account extends only to the grantor during that time. A son named in his mother’s revocable living trust has no right to read it while she is alive and competent, even if he is also the named successor trustee. The page on who a trustee answers to covers the rule.

The mother can show it to him whenever she likes, and many parents do, because a successor who has read the trust in advance is much better prepared. The rule protects her privacy, and it is hers to waive.

4. How Do I Get a Copy of a Trust After Death?

After the grantor dies, a living trust becomes irrevocable and the beneficiaries’ rights begin. Within 60 days of learning the trust has become irrevocable, the trustee must send each qualified beneficiary a notice stating that the trust exists, who created it, that the beneficiary may request a copy of the trust instrument, and that the beneficiary is entitled to accountings. Getting the copy then takes four steps.

1. Find the trustee. The named successor trustee usually takes over. If nobody has contacted you, search the court records in the county where the grantor lived, because the trustee must file a notice of trust there, and the notice gives the trustee’s name and address.
2. Ask in writing. Send a short letter or email asking for a complete copy of the trust instrument and all amendments. Keep a copy and note the date.
3. Give a reasonable time. The statute says “upon reasonable request” and sets no number of days. Two to three weeks is a fair window for a trustee who is organizing papers after a death.
4. Follow up once, then escalate. A second written request that mentions the statute resolves most delays. The next step is a lawyer’s letter, and after that the court.

Our guide to Florida trust administration walks through what the trustee is doing during the same months, and the guide for the successor trustee covers the notices from the other side of the desk.

5. What If the Trustee Refuses to Give Me a Copy?

A beneficiary can ask a Florida court to order the trustee to produce the copy. The case starts with a complaint under the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, as every Florida trust case must, and the court’s list of remedies for breach of trust includes compelling the trustee to perform the trustee’s duties and ordering the trustee to account.

Three other rules give a beneficiary leverage before the case is ever filed.

• Fees. In an action for breach of fiduciary duty, the court awards costs and attorney’s fees as in chancery actions, and it can direct that they be paid from a party’s share of the trust. A trustee who forces a lawsuit over a document the statute requires can end up paying for it.
• Removal. A persistent failure to administer the trust effectively is one of the four grounds on which a court can remove a trustee in Florida.
• No clock runs against you. Knowing that you have not received an accounting does not start any limitations period on a claim for the missing accounting, so a trustee cannot run out the clock by staying silent. The 6-month clock starts only when an adequate report arrives.

Once the copy arrives, read it against the list of what a trustee cannot do in Florida, because the terms are the yardstick for everything the trustee has done since the death.

6. What Else Can a Beneficiary Ask For?

The copy of the trust is the first of four rights a qualified beneficiary holds once a trust is irrevocable, and none of them can be removed by the trust’s terms.

1. The 60-day notices. One when the trustee accepts, with the trustee’s name and address, and one when the trust becomes irrevocable.
2. A complete copy of the trust instrument, on reasonable request.
3. A trust accounting at least once a year, on termination of the trust, and on a change of trustee. A beneficiary may waive the accountings in writing and may withdraw the waiver later for future periods.
4. Information on request. Relevant information about the assets and liabilities of the trust and the particulars of its administration.

The broader picture, including how to object to an accounting, is in our guide to Florida trust beneficiary rights. A beneficiary who has read the trust and wants the trustee replaced will also find the trustee’s duties laid out in plain terms.

7. Why Does a Bank Ask for a Copy of the Trust?

A bank, a brokerage or a title company asks because it needs proof that the trust exists and that the person signing has authority. Florida lets the trustee give anyone other than a beneficiary a certification of trust instead of the full document. The certification states the date of the trust, the grantor, the current trustee and address, the trustee’s powers, whether the trust can be revoked, and how title is taken. It does not need to include who inherits.

The recipient may still ask for copies of the excerpts that name the trustee and grant the power for the transaction at hand. A trustee can keep the family’s private terms out of the bank’s file while giving the bank everything the statute says it needs. The certification statute lists the eight items.

What Does It Cost to Get a Trust Copy or Enforce the Right?

Most requests are resolved by a letter. Trust administration for a trustee, including the notices, the copies and the accountings, is a flat fee quoted at consult. A suit to compel a trustee to produce the trust, account, or step aside is litigation, which we quote per matter rather than as a flat fee. Court filing costs and other government charges are additional and passed through at cost. Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The daughter who hears nothing for four months. A father dies, and his son, the successor trustee, stops returning his sister’s calls. She has never seen the trust. She sends a written request for a complete copy and all amendments, and when three weeks pass, a lawyer’s letter citing the trustee’s duty produces the trust within ten days. The trust also shows she was owed a notice she never received.

The grandson who is not yet qualified. A grandmother’s trust pays her daughter for life, then her grandchildren. The grandson asks for a copy while his mother is alive. He qualifies, because he would take if the trust ended today, and the trustee sends it. His own children, who take only if he dies before his mother, do not qualify yet.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §736.0813(1)(a)-(e) (duty to inform and account; 60-day notices; complete copy of the trust instrument upon reasonable request; annual accountings; information on request); §736.0813(2) (waiver of accountings and withdrawal); §736.0813(4) (duties extend only to the settlor while revocable).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0105(2)(n),(r),(s),(t) (notice of trust, notice, copy, accounting and information duties prevail over the trust’s terms); §736.0103(19) (qualified beneficiary); §736.0110(1) (charitable organization with the rights of a qualified beneficiary); §736.0603(1) (duties owed exclusively to the settlor while revocable).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0604 (6-month period to contest after the trustee sends a copy and notice); §736.05055 (notice of trust filed in the county of the settlor’s domicile, naming the trustee).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0201(1),(4) (trust proceedings begin by complaint); §736.1001(2)(a),(d) (compel performance; order an accounting); §736.1004 (annotated)(1) (fees and costs as in chancery actions); §736.0706 (annotated)(2)(c) (removal for persistent failure to administer); §736.1008(3) (no limitations period runs on a claim for a missing accounting).
• Fla. Stat. §736.1017(1),(4),(5) (certification of trust; dispositive terms not required; excerpts on request).
• Case retold below: Hadassah v. Melcer, 268 So. 3d 759 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019). Opinion read in full; retrieved September 30, 2026.

Who Counts When the Trustee Decides Who Gets the Copy

In my practice, a fight over a copy of the trust usually turns on who the trustee believes he has to answer to, and a trustee who draws that list too short keeps people in the dark for years.

In one case I have reviewed, a mother signed a trust in 1989. At her death part of it went into a trust for her husband, and after he died in 2016 it split into three trusts, one for each of their daughters. Each daughter received income and principal for life, her share moved to her surviving sisters when she died, and after the last daughter died everything was to go to three charities. The trustee asked a court to let him resign and named the daughters and the charities as the qualified beneficiaries. The daughters argued the charities were too far down the line to count, which would have left the charities with no notices, no copy of the trust and no accountings for what could be decades. The trial court agreed with the daughters. The Fourth District reversed in 2019, reading the statute to imagine all three daughters’ interests ending at once, which puts the charities next in line and makes them qualified.

My reading of that case is that the daughters were doing something ordinary, keeping the family’s trust within the family, and the statute did not let them. Having read the Florida cases on who a trustee must inform, I have a few take-home points.

The first is the test. A beneficiary at the end of a long chain can still be qualified, because the question is who would take if the current interests all ended today. A trustee who is told you are too remote should be asked to apply that test in writing.

The second is the list. A trustee who leaves a qualified beneficiary off the notices has breached a duty the trust cannot waive. Avoid deciding the list informally, and have it checked against the definition before the 60-day notices go out.

The third is the drafting. An owner who names charities or grandchildren as remainder beneficiaries is choosing, at the same moment, who will receive copies and accountings after the owner’s death. The trust can say who the trustee will be and how reports are delivered, and every trust I draft is written with that list in mind.

One limit is worth stating plainly. The court was construing the separate provision that gives charities the rights of qualified beneficiaries, and it sent the case back without deciding anything else, so the opinion does not describe what the charities received afterward.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. Each case described above is a decision of a Florida court rather than a matter handled by this firm. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Updated on September 30, 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.