The Trustee's Legal Companion: A Step-By-Step Guide to Administering a Living Trust

You’re the trustee. Now what?

Living trusts are popular estate planning tools, but when you’re chosen to serve as a trustee, you might wonder where to begin. The Trustee’s Legal Companion has everything you need to get organized, get started, and get the job done.

You’ll learn how to:

• decide whether to take on the job of trustee
• set up ongoing trusts for surviving spouses, children, or beneficiaries with special needs
• invest trust assets
• get help from lawyers, financial planners, and other experts
• handle taxes and prepare accountings
• work effectively with beneficiaries, and
• distribute trust property.

The authors—who have helped many a bewildered trustee—show you step by step how to administer a living trust with confidence.

Liza Hanks  practiced estate planning, trust administration, and probate law for more than two decades. She has taught Estate Planning and Taxation at Santa Clara University Law School as an adjunct lecturer and is a graduate of Stanford Law School.

Carol Elias Zolla is an attorney who practices only in the field of estate planning and administration. Since 2002, she has been certified as a Specialist in Estate Planning, trust and Probate Law by The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. Carol graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. She serves on the Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law Advisory Commission to the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California. She is an active member of the Trusts and Estates Section of the Silicon Valley bar association, and is the Editor of its newsletter, The Scrivener. She frequently speaks about estate planning topics to attorney organizations and parent groups.

Shaila Buckley is the founder of Shaila Buckley Law, a boutique law firm in Boise, Idaho, that specializes in estate planning. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and the chair of the Idaho State Bar’s Tax and Estate Section’s Education Committee.