How Do You Remove a Trustee in Florida?

1. Can a Beneficiary Remove a Trustee?

A beneficiary can ask a Florida court to remove a trustee, and Florida’s removal statute gives the same right to the grantor and to any co-trustee. The court can also act on its own. What a beneficiary usually cannot do is fire the trustee alone, unless the trust gives the beneficiary that power.

Two things decide how much power a beneficiary has.

• Whether the trust is still revocable. While the person who made a revocable living trust is alive and competent, the trustee answers to that person alone. A child named in the trust has no standing to replace the trustee. The grantor replaces a trustee by amending the trust.
• Whether the trust has a removal clause. Many modern trusts let a majority of the adult beneficiaries, a trust protector or a named family member remove the trustee and appoint a replacement, often limited to a bank or an independent person. A clause like that is faster and cheaper than any court case.

Florida adds a safeguard around removal clauses. A person who holds the right to remove or replace a trustee does not, by holding that right, acquire the trustee’s powers. A beneficiary who can fire the trustee cannot step into the job to pay themselves.

2. On What Grounds Can a Trustee Be Removed?

A Florida court may remove a trustee on any of four grounds.

1. A serious breach of trust. Taking trust money, self-dealing, mixing trust funds with personal funds, or ignoring the trust’s terms. The list of what a trustee cannot do in Florida covers the usual breaches.
2. A lack of cooperation among co-trustees that substantially impairs the administration of the trust, such as two siblings serving together who have stopped speaking and cannot agree on selling the house.
3. Unfitness, unwillingness, or persistent failure to administer the trust effectively, where the court decides removal best serves the beneficiaries. A trustee who has not sent an accounting in three years, or who has let the property sit uninsured, falls here.
4. A substantial change of circumstances, or a request by all the qualified beneficiaries, where the court finds removal serves all the beneficiaries, is not inconsistent with a material purpose of the trust, and a suitable successor is available.

The fourth ground is the one that surprises families. A trustee who has done nothing wrong can still be replaced when every qualified beneficiary asks and a suitable successor is ready. Disagreeing with a trustee’s judgment is not enough under any of the four. A trustee who uses discretion in good faith and within the trust’s terms, and pays a brother less than he asks for, has not committed a breach, and the court will not remove the trustee for it.

3. How Do You Remove a Trustee Without Going to Court?

Three routes avoid a lawsuit, and each one depends on the documents or on the trustee’s cooperation.

1. The trust’s removal clause. Follow it exactly. Most clauses require a signed writing delivered to the trustee, and many require the replacement to be independent or a bank. A removal that skips a required step leaves two people claiming to be trustee, which is worse than no removal at all.
2. A resignation. A trustee who is overwhelmed often wants out. Florida lets a trustee resign on at least 30 days’ notice to the qualified beneficiaries, the grantor if living, and the co-trustees, and no trust can take that right away. A resigning trustee remains liable for what happened while serving.
3. An amendment by the grantor. While the trust is revocable, the grantor signs an amendment naming a new trustee. We sign it with the same formalities as a will, because any part of an amendment that changes who inherits is invalid without them.

4. How Does the Court Petition Work?

Every Florida trust case starts with a complaint governed by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, and appointing or removing a trustee is on the list of proceedings the trust code expressly allows. People search for a petition to remove a trustee, and in Florida the filing is a complaint in circuit court. It names the trustee, sets out the facts, and states which of the four grounds applies.

The court does not have to wait until the end of the case to protect the property. While removal is pending, the court can order any of the remedies for breach of trust, including suspending the trustee, appointing a special fiduciary to take possession of the property, ordering an accounting, or barring the trustee from a particular sale.

Two money rules shape the case from the first day.

• The trustee defends with trust money. A trustee sued for breach of trust may pay the defense lawyers from trust assets after serving a written notice of intent on the qualified beneficiaries whose shares are affected. A beneficiary can ask the court to stop the payments, and the court can do so only where there is a reasonable basis to conclude there was a breach.
• Fees can shift. In an action for breach of fiduciary duty, the court awards costs and attorney’s fees as in chancery actions, and can direct them to be paid from a party’s share of the trust or entered as a judgment against the party personally.

Before filing, we collect the trust, every amendment and any trust accountings. A beneficiary who has never been shown the document should start by getting a copy of the trust, because the terms decide which grounds are open.

5. Can I Remove My Sibling as Trustee?

Yes, on the same four grounds, and a sibling serving as trustee is the most common removal case in Florida. A brother or sister who is both trustee and beneficiary owes the other siblings the same loyalty and impartiality a bank would, and the page on whether a trustee can be a beneficiary covers how that conflict is managed.

The usual evidence is in the transactions. Florida presumes a conflict when the trustee makes a deal involving trust property with the trustee’s own spouse, children, siblings or parents, or with a business the trustee has an interest in. A sister who sells the trust’s house to her husband or lends trust money to her own company has made a deal the other beneficiaries can undo, and a pattern of those deals supports removal. The same is true of a trustee who stops sending accountings, which Florida requires at least once a year once the trust is irrevocable.

Hurt feelings, slow replies and a trustee the rest of the family dislikes do not meet any of the four grounds. A court looks for a failure it can measure.

6. What Does a Removed Trustee Hand Over?

A trustee who has been removed or has resigned keeps the duties of a trustee and the powers needed to protect the trust property until the property reaches the successor. Florida requires the former trustee to deliver the trust property within a reasonable time to the co-trustee, the successor trustee or whoever else is entitled to it.

The former trustee may keep a reasonable reserve to pay debts, expenses and taxes. In practice the handover includes the bank and brokerage accounts, the deeds and keys, the tax returns, the records the trustee was required to keep, and a final accounting through the date of the change of trustee, which Florida requires on any change of trustee. Removal does not end the former trustee’s liability, and the successor can pursue the old trustee for losses on the beneficiaries’ behalf.

7. Who Becomes Trustee After a Removal?

Florida fills a vacancy in a fixed order. First comes the successor the trust names. If there is none, the qualified beneficiaries may appoint someone by unanimous agreement, and if they cannot agree, the court appoints one. If a co-trustee remains in office, the vacancy does not have to be filled, and the remaining co-trustees act for the trust. The court may also appoint an additional trustee or a special fiduciary whenever the administration needs one.

A new trustee starts with a list of duties and deadlines, which our guide for the Florida successor trustee lays out. The broader picture of the trustee’s job, including what a trustee is paid, helps a family decide whether to name a relative or a professional as the replacement.

What Does It Cost to Remove a Trustee?

Removing a trustee is litigation, which we quote per matter after reading the trust and the accountings, because the cost moves with how hard the trustee fights. We do not quote litigation as a flat fee. Where the trust has a removal clause or the trustee agrees to resign, the work is usually a letter and the transition documents. Administering the trust afterward for the new trustee is a flat fee quoted at consult. Court filing fees and other government costs are additional and passed through at cost. Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date. Our trust litigation page covers the wider range of trust disputes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The brother who stopped reporting. Two years after their mother’s death, a brother serving as trustee has sent no accounting and no notice, and the trust’s rental condo sits empty. His sisters send a written demand, and when it goes unanswered they file a complaint on the persistent-failure ground and ask the court to appoint a special fiduciary while the case is pending.

The trustee everyone likes, replaced by agreement. A family friend named as trustee in 1998 has moved abroad and wants out. She resigns on 30 days’ notice, the trust names no further successor, and the three adult children unanimously appoint a trust company. Nobody goes to court.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §736.0706(1)-(3) (who may request removal; four grounds; interim relief under §736.1001(2)); §736.1001(2) (remedies, including suspension, a special fiduciary and an accounting); §736.0201(1),(4)(b) (trust proceedings begin by complaint; appointing or removing a trustee).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0603 (annotated)(1) (duties owed to the settlor while revocable); §736.0814 (annotated)(5) (a holder of a removal power does not acquire the trustee’s powers); §736.0705(1)-(3) (resignation on 30 days’ notice or with court approval; liability survives).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0707(1)-(2) (former trustee’s continuing duties; delivery within a reasonable time; reasonable reserve); §736.0813 (annotated)(1)(d) (accounting at least annually and on a change of trustee); §736.0704(1)-(3),(5) (vacancy and order of appointment; special fiduciary); §736.0703 (annotated)(1),(2) (co-trustees act by majority; remaining co-trustees act on a vacancy).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0802 (annotated)(3)(a) (presumed conflict with the trustee’s spouse, descendants, siblings, parents and affiliated businesses); §736.0802(10)(b),(e) (trustee’s defense fees from trust assets after notice of intent; motion to prohibit); §736.1004 (annotated)(1)-(2) (fees and costs in breach of trust actions; payment from a party’s interest).
• Case retold below: Giller v. Grossman, 327 So. 3d 391 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021), No. 3D19-2514. Opinion read in full; retrieved September 30, 2026.

When a Removal Case Is Really a Distribution Fight

The calls I take about removing a trustee almost always start with money the caller expected and did not receive. A missed distribution is a real grievance, and it is also the one Florida courts are least willing to treat as a ground for removal.

A decision of the Third District in 2021 shows how that plays out. A father created seven trusts to hold the family’s real estate and businesses, and gave each of his three children a third. Two children took their shares outright. The third son had financial trouble, and after talking it through with his father he chose to leave his third in separate trusts that would protect it from his creditors, for the benefit of himself and his two children. His sister served as trustee, with his agreement. After the father died in 2009, the son asked for all the accumulated income, and later for all the income-producing assets. The lawyer who drafted the trusts told the sister that handing everything to her brother would breach her duty to his children, and she refused. In 2011 he sued her on fifteen counts, including removal and civil theft. The case took eight years to reach a final judgment, and the trial court found no breach and no conflict, noting that she had never paid herself a fee. The Third District affirmed, and it also upheld her paying her lawyers out of the brother’s own trusts.

My reading of that case is that the son paid twice, once in the distributions he never received and again in the defense his own trust funded. In reviewing the Florida removal cases, I have a few take-home points.

The first is the ground. A trustee who uses discretion in good faith, within the trust’s terms, is doing the job even when a beneficiary disagrees with every decision. The grounds Florida recognizes are breach, deadlock, unfitness or persistent failure, and a change of circumstances or a request by every qualified beneficiary.

The second is the cost. A trustee sued for breach can pay the defense from the trust, which means the beneficiary who sues often funds both sides. Avoid filing for removal before the accountings and the trust have been read against the four grounds.

The third is the design. An owner who expects a child to need protection can add a removal clause that lets a trust protector replace the trustee with a bank, which gives the family a way out of a stalemate without eight years in court. Every trust I draft addresses who serves, who can replace them, and how.

One limit is worth stating plainly. The findings about the sister’s conduct came from the trial judge, and the appeals court reviewed them only for an abuse of discretion, so the opinion does not say a different judge could not have weighed the same record differently.

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.