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

Liza Hanks is a Palo Alto, California attorney who specializes in estate planning for families of all ages. A graduate of Stanford Law School, she has also served as an instructor at the Santa Clara University Law School and practiced with the state of California and a prestigious Silicon Valley firm. Hanks is the author or coauthor of The Mom's Guide to Wills and Estate Planning. She also blogs on wills, trusts, powers of attorney, living wills, estate taxes, and probate court on the law blog Everyday Estate Planning.

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.