A Colorado Successor Trustee’s First-Year Legal Duties

Last updated 2026-09-17 · Reviewed by Diedre Wachbrit Braverman

Being named the successor trustee of a family member’s trust in Colorado comes with a set of legal duties that begin the moment the job does, and one of them carries a 60-day deadline most new trustees never hear about until it has passed. When a parent dies and the revocable living trust they created becomes irrevocable, the person now holding the trustee role is bound by the Colorado Uniform Trust Code, and the code does not wait for the trustee to learn the rules. It starts the clock on the day the role is accepted.

Trust administration is the ongoing work of managing a trust’s property and carrying out its terms after it takes effect, under duties Colorado law places on the trustee by statute. The most immediate of those duties is disclosure. Within 60 days, a Colorado trustee generally has to tell the trust’s qualified beneficiaries that the trust exists and that they have a right to information about it, and the instinct many new trustees have to keep quiet until things are sorted out is the instinct that gets them into trouble.

The 60-Day Clock Most New Trustees Miss

Section 15-5-813 of the Colorado Uniform Trust Code sets two separate 60-day notice deadlines. Within 60 days of accepting the trusteeship, the trustee must notify the qualified beneficiaries of the acceptance and give them the trustee’s name, address, and telephone number. Within 60 days of learning that a trust has become irrevocable, whether by the settlor’s death or otherwise, the trustee must notify those beneficiaries that the trust exists, identify the settlor, and tell them they may request the parts of the trust document that affect their interest and may receive a trustee’s report.

For most families, both clocks start at the same event. A parent sets up a revocable living trust, names an adult child as successor trustee, and dies. The trust becomes irrevocable at that death, the child accepts the role, and two 60-day windows open together.

The notice runs to qualified beneficiaries, a defined term in the code rather than everyone who might eventually inherit. In practice it reaches the people currently entitled to distributions and certain others with a stake in the trust. One limit is worth knowing. These two notice duties do not apply to a trusteeship accepted, or a trust that became irrevocable, before January 1, 2019, when this part of the code took effect.

Braverman Law Group, LLC works with Boulder Valley and Front Range families at exactly this point, when a trust has just become irrevocable and the new trustee is holding a deadline they did not know they had.

What Keeping Beneficiaries Informed Actually Requires

The 60-day notices are the start of a duty that continues for the life of the trust. A Colorado trustee has to keep the qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed about the administration of the trust and the material facts they need to protect their interests, and has to respond promptly when a beneficiary asks for information, unless the request is unreasonable. A beneficiary who asks for the portions of the trust instrument that affect their interest is entitled to them.

The recurring obligation is the report. At least once a year, and again when the trust ends, the trustee has to send the beneficiaries who receive or may receive distributions a report covering several things.

• The trust’s property, its liabilities, and the receipts and disbursements during the period.
• The source and amount of the trustee’s own compensation.
• A listing of the trust assets and, where feasible, what those assets are worth.

A beneficiary can waive the right to these reports and can later withdraw that waiver, so the duty is not absolute. But the default is disclosure, and a trustee who simply stops communicating is not exercising an exception. They are creating a record of silence.

If that describes where you are as a new trustee, call Braverman Law Group at (303) 800-1588. The first conversation is free.

The Other Duties That Come With the Role

Disclosure sits alongside the core fiduciary duties the same part of the code imposes. A trustee has to administer the trust in good faith according to its terms and the beneficiaries’ interests. A trustee owes a duty of loyalty, acting for the benefit of the beneficiaries rather than themselves. Where a trust has more than one beneficiary, the trustee has to act impartially among them, giving fair regard to each interest rather than favoring the one they happen to be closest to.

The code also requires a trustee to keep trust property separate from their own and to keep records of the administration. Commingling a trust account with a personal one, even briefly and even with good intentions, is one of the clearest ways a well-meaning family trustee breaches a duty without realizing it. Braverman Law Group advises trustees and the accountants and financial advisors who work alongside them throughout Boulder and the Front Range, and these first-year mechanics are where most of the avoidable problems start.

Why the Quiet Trustee Is the One Who Gets Sued

The reporting duties are usually described as a burden on the trustee. They are better understood as the trustee’s protection. A beneficiary who receives regular, complete accountings can see that the trust is being handled properly and has little to build a complaint around. A beneficiary who hears nothing for a year fills the silence with suspicion, and suspicion is what leads to a petition to compel an accounting, to surcharge the trustee for losses, or to remove them.

The pattern shows up again and again in Colorado trust disputes. The underlying administration was often fine, but the trustee treated the reporting rules as optional and handed a frustrated beneficiary the one thing courts respond to, which is a trustee who would not account. Following section 15-5-813 on schedule is not busywork. It is the difference between a defensible administration and a contested one, which is why an experienced approach to administering a Colorado trust treats the first notices and the first annual report as the foundation of everything that follows.

Talk Through a Colorado Trusteeship Before Problems Start

A first-time trustee rarely fails because they acted in bad faith. They fail because the duties are technical, the deadlines run quietly, and no one explains the rules until something has already gone wrong. Braverman Law Group works with families and the professionals who advise them. Call (303) 800-1588 or contact the firm to arrange a free consultation.