Estate & Trust Administration For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 14

Creating and Keeping Trust Records

IN THIS CHAPTER

Putting together a filing system

Creating an inventory

Preparing annual accounts

You probably know at least one person who never balances his checkbook, who keeps track of his money by rounding to the nearest dollar or ten, who thinks that he must have money in the account because he still has checks in the checkbook, and who shows up at his accountant’s office on April 14 with a shoe box of receipts. We’d love to be able to tell you that you can administer a trust this way — that the trust elves come in each night to do all the work of the trust — but we’d be lying. A competently managed trust is one where you keep, maintain, and update records on a regular basis. You have no room in trust management for approximation or procrastination; every penny counts and must be counted. In this chapter, we explain the nuts and bolts of what records you should keep, the information you need to create them, and how long to retain them.

Creating a Filing System

Organization is the key, and no more so than when you’re a trustee. The grantor has relied on you to handle the trust’s assets competently. When you’re organized, you know ...