Someone you love has died, their trust names you as the successor trustee, and now you are holding a document you have probably never read carefully. There is no court date. Nobody has sent you instructions. The bank will not talk to you yet. So what are you supposed to do?
That gap is where trustees get into trouble. Trust administration is the process of formally stepping into the trustee role, taking control of the trust’s property, handling debts and taxes, and distributing what remains to the beneficiaries. In Nevada it usually happens entirely outside of court — which means no judge is checking your work, and no clerk is going to call and remind you about a deadline.
That is genuinely easier than probate. It is also more dangerous. When something goes wrong in a trust administration, it is the trustee’s problem. A trustee who distributes too early, misses a creditor deadline, misreads a distribution clause, or simply fails to keep records can end up personally responsible to the beneficiaries.
We help trustees get it right the first time — and we help beneficiaries when a trustee is not getting it right.
Call Flake & Flake at (702) 978-8890 for a free consultation with a Nevada trust administration attorney.
What We Take Care Of
When you hire us, you are handing over the checklist. You do not need to learn it. Here is what we are doing on your behalf:
- Getting you properly into the chair. We read the trust and every amendment and restatement, determine which version actually controls, and prepare and notarize the affidavit that formally establishes you as successor trustee. Where the trust holds real property, we record it with the county so the title record reflects your authority. This is the document banks, brokerages and title companies ask for, and having it done correctly at the start prevents weeks of being told no.
- Notifying the beneficiaries. We prepare and send the formal notice of the grantor’s death to everyone entitled to receive it. Done properly, this notice also starts the clock that eventually closes the door on challenges to the trust.
- Notifying creditors and closing that window. We draft the notice to creditors, handle the newspaper publication, and mail it to known creditors and to Nevada Medicaid. We keep and file proof of every mailing. This is the step that lets you eventually distribute without looking over your shoulder.
- Setting the trust up as its own taxpayer. Obtaining a tax identification number for the trust, so accounts can be opened and reporting can be handled properly.
- Finding, inventorying and valuing everything. Identifying what the trust actually holds and establishing date-of-death values — which matter both for taxes and for your own protection later.
- Protecting the property while you hold it. Keeping insurance in place, keeping real property secure, and managing investments prudently during the administration. A trustee is judged on this, not just on the final distribution.
- Sorting out what is owed. Reviewing claims, paying what is legitimately owed, rejecting what is not, and handling final expenses.
- Taxes. The grantor’s final personal return, the trust’s own income tax returns, and — where the estate is large enough to require one — a federal estate tax return.
- Assets that never made it into the trust. Very common, and covered in more detail below. Nevada has abbreviated court procedures for this, and we run them alongside the trust administration rather than starting over.
- Liquidating what needs to be sold. Personal property, vehicles, and real estate that has to be converted to cash before it can be divided.
- Accounting to the beneficiaries. Preparing the accounting that shows income, expenses and distributions. Beneficiaries have real rights to this information, and a clean accounting is one of the best protections a trustee has.
- Distributing, and actually closing the file. Making the distributions the trust calls for, obtaining signed receipts and releases, and formally terminating the trust — so this is finished, and not something that resurfaces in three years.
Throughout, we document every action and keep the beneficiaries informed. A large share of trust litigation is not caused by a trustee doing something wrong. It is caused by a trustee going quiet.
The Deadlines Nobody Tells You About
Two of them do more work than all the rest combined, and both are steps a trustee has to affirmatively take. If you never take them, the clocks never start.
120 days to shut down challenges to the trust
When a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because the grantor died, the trustee can serve a specific statutory notice on the beneficiaries, the grantor’s heirs and other interested persons. Once that notice is properly served — and Nevada law is particular about what it has to say and how it has to look — someone who wants to challenge the validity of the trust generally has 120 days to bring the action. Serve it correctly and the window closes. Never serve it and the window stays open indefinitely.
90 days to shut down creditors
A trustee can publish a notice to creditors and mail it to known creditors after the grantor’s death. Claims not filed within 90 days are barred, and the trustee can then distribute without personal liability for those barred claims. Skip this step and you may hand assets to beneficiaries while a creditor still has a live claim — and creditors do not always chase the beneficiaries first.
There is also a separate notice obligation if the grantor ever received public assistance. It has a short fuse, and missing it can leave the trust assets exposed even after they have been distributed.
Why Trustees Call Us
- You have never done this before and you would like someone to tell you, in order, what to do.
- The beneficiaries are not getting along. A trustee caught between siblings is in a genuinely difficult position, and having counsel changes the dynamic.
- The trust was never fully funded. Assets are still titled in the decedent’s individual name.
- There is real estate — especially property in more than one state, or property that has to be sold before it can be divided.
- Someone is threatening to contest the trust, or has hired a lawyer, or is asking questions in a way that feels like the prelude to a lawsuit.
- You want out. Trustees can resign, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.
- The prior trustee left a mess and you have inherited both the job and the questions about how the last person handled it.
- You are a beneficiary, not the trustee, and you cannot get information, an accounting, or your distribution.
Do You Have to Go to Court for a Nevada Trust Administration?
Usually not, and that is the whole point of having a trust. Most administrations are handled privately — no filing, no hearing, and none of the public record that probate creates.
But Nevada does let you go to court on purpose when it helps. A trustee can ask the district court to take jurisdiction over the trust, to instruct the trustee on how to read an ambiguous provision, to approve an accounting, or to resolve a dispute among beneficiaries. Sometimes that is exactly the right move — a court order approving your conduct is the most durable protection a trustee can get. Knowing when to use that option, and when using it would just spend money and invite a fight, is a large part of what we are hired for.
Can a Trustee Be Held Personally Liable?
Yes. This is the part that surprises people most.
A trustee is a fiduciary. The standard is not “you did your best” — it is a duty of loyalty and prudence to the beneficiaries, enforceable in court. Trustees have been held responsible for distributing before creditors were resolved, for favoring one beneficiary over another, for letting property sit and lose value, for mixing trust funds with their own, and for simply failing to keep records good enough to show where the money went.
Most of these are not bad people. They are ordinary family members who took on a job nobody trained them for and made a reasonable-looking decision that turned out to be the wrong one. Counsel is cheap compared to that outcome, and trustee’s attorney’s fees are ordinarily a proper administrative expense of the trust — not something you pay out of your own pocket.
How Long Does Trust Administration Take in Nevada?
A straightforward administration — a funded trust, cooperative beneficiaries, liquid assets, no disputes — commonly runs four to eight months, driven mostly by the notice periods and the final tax filings.
Add real estate that has to sell, assets outside the trust, a business interest, an estate tax return, a beneficiary who will not sign anything, or a contest, and the timeline moves out considerably. We would rather give you a realistic estimate at the start than an optimistic one you will resent later.
What if the Trust Was Never Funded?
This is the most common complication we handle, and it catches people who thought their planning was done.
A trust only controls property that was actually transferred into it. When a house was refinanced and the title company never put it back into the trust, or a bank account was opened after the plan was signed, or a rental property was bought in an individual name, that asset is not in the trust — no matter what the trust document says.
Most estate plans include a “pour-over” will as the backstop, which directs those stray assets into the trust. The catch is that a pour-over will generally has to go through probate to work. So you end up running a probate and a trust administration side by side. Nevada has abbreviated procedures for smaller estates that can make this far less painful, and identifying early which one applies can save months and thousands of dollars. We handle both halves, so nothing falls between them.
Do You Have to Accept the Job of Trustee?
No. A person named as successor trustee can decline the role. The trust will usually name an alternate, and if it does not, there are mechanisms to get someone appointed.
But timing matters. Once you have begun acting as trustee, walking away is a resignation with its own requirements — not a simple change of mind. If you are not sure you want the job, that is a conversation worth having before you sign anything or move any money, not after.
We Also Represent Beneficiaries
If you are a beneficiary and the trustee will not return your calls, will not show you the trust, will not provide an accounting, or has been sitting on your distribution for a year with no explanation, you are not being unreasonable. Nevada gives beneficiaries enforceable rights to information and to a proper accounting, and gives the court authority to compel a trustee to act — and, in the right case, to remove one.
Often a single letter from counsel resolves it. Sometimes it does not. We handle both.
Why Flake & Flake
We are a family-run Henderson firm, and trust and estate administration is a core part of what we do rather than a sideline. You will talk to an attorney, not be handed to a paralegal for the duration of your matter. We handle the administrations that stay quiet and private, and we handle the ones that turn into litigation — which means we can tell you honestly which one you are probably in.
We serve trustees and beneficiaries in Henderson, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Boulder City and throughout Clark County, including out-of-state trustees administering Nevada trusts and Nevada property.
Talk to a Nevada Trust Administration Attorney
If you have just been handed a trust and you are not sure what the first step is, the first step is a conversation. There is no charge for it.
Bring the trust, a death certificate, and whatever you know about the assets and any debts. That is enough for us to tell you what you are dealing with.
Call (702) 978-8890 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.
