Testamentary Trustees must pay close attention to the filing timelines. Failure to meet filing deadlines for the Inventory and fiduciary accounts will necessitate enforce actions by the Commissioner, and delinquency fees which must be paid by the trustee personally.

 

Tip: READING THE INSTRUCTIONS provided to the trustee at qualification, and available online as provided in the links below, will provide you with information you need for the forms. The Instructions provide excellent detailed information.  

 

Timeline for filing for Inventory and account filing requirements for testamentary trustees with the Commissioner:

4 months after testamentary trust is funded, file the testamentary trust Inventory with the Commissioner, along with supporting documents as may be requested by the Commissioner’s office. 

Notice that this differs from the due dates for decedents' estates, which require filing within 4 months after qualification. It is quite possible that a testamentary trust may not be funded under an estate administration for a number of months until the amount that will be distributed to the trusts is determine and actually distributed to the trustee (at which point the trust is funded). Prior to the funding of the trust there will be no assets for the trustee to manage, control, or to account for. Therefore, the testamentary trust inventory is not due until four months after the first date that any assets are received by the trustee of the trust. See the instructions for helpful information if you receiving additional assets after the testamentary trust inventory has been filed. 

May 1 of the year following the year of funding of the trust (as discussed above) file the first testamentary trust accounting with the Commissioner's office. 

Trustee accounts for testamentary trusts are made on a calendar year basis. Therefore, the first trust accounting covers the period from the day of qualification of the trustee to May 1 of the following year. Therefore, it is very likely that the trustee's first accounting will be for a period lest than a full twelve months. 

 

Thereafter, all trust accounts, must be filed with the Commissioner's office on or before May 1 each year

After the first account, subsequent account(s), if necessary, will cover the 12-month period calendar year period of January 1 though December 31 each year and  must be filed with all supporting documents with the Commissioner's office by May 1 of each year. 

 

For Example:
February 1	Trustee qualifies; first account period ends
December 31	First account period ends (end of calendar year)
January 1	Second account period begins
May 1	First trust account must be filed with the Commissioner
December  31	Second account period ends (calendar year)
May 1	Second trust account must be filed with the Commissioner

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so on until the final testamentary trust account with zero assets on hand is completed and filed with the Commissioner.