Skip to main content
Maine Trust Administration
Support GuideMaine16 min read

Maine Trust Administration

Maine trust administration: the 60-day beneficiary notices, trustee accounting, and distribution a successor trustee owes under the Maine Uniform Trust Code.

By Settled Editorial

Maine trust administration is the work a successor trustee does to settle a revocable living trust after the person who created it (the settlor) dies. You take control of the trust property, notify the qualified beneficiaries, pay debts and taxes, keep an accounting, and distribute what is left under the trust terms. The Maine Uniform Trust Code, Title 18-B M.R.S., sets the rules.

Trust administration runs largely outside the county Probate Court. That is the point of a funded revocable living trust: assets titled in the trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate, so the process is usually more private and faster than Maine probate. You still owe real duties. Maine law makes a trustee answer to the beneficiaries, and a trustee who cuts corners can be held personally liable.

If you were just named successor trustee, here is the sequence: accept the role, secure the trust property, get a trust tax ID, send the 60-day notices the Maine Uniform Trust Code requires, inventory and value the assets, pay valid debts and taxes, keep a written accounting, then distribute and close the trust. The sections below walk through each step and cite the exact 18-B section.

What Trust Administration Means in Maine

A revocable living trust is revocable while the settlor is alive. Once the settlor dies, the trust becomes irrevocable and your job as successor trustee begins. Under 18-B M.R.S. 801, you must administer the trust in good faith, follow its terms and purposes, act in the interests of the beneficiaries, and comply with the Trust Code. That standard is not a suggestion. It is the measuring stick a court uses if a beneficiary complains.

Your main duties as a Maine successor trustee are to:

  • Take control of the trust property and keep it safe (18-B M.R.S. 809).
  • Keep adequate records and keep trust property separate from your own (18-B M.R.S. 810).
  • Notify the qualified beneficiaries and report to them (18-B M.R.S. 813).
  • Administer the trust as a prudent person would (18-B M.R.S. 804).
  • Pay valid debts, expenses, and taxes before distributing.
  • Distribute the trust property under its terms and close the trust (18-B M.R.S. 817).

A "qualified beneficiary" is, in plain terms, a beneficiary who is currently entitled or eligible to receive distributions, or who would take if the trust ended now. Those are the people you owe notice and reports to.

Successor Trustee vs. Maine Personal Representative

These two roles look similar and often confuse families. Here is the difference.

A successor trustee is named in the trust document, manages assets titled in the trust, works outside court, and answers to Title 18-B (the Maine Uniform Trust Code). A personal representative (Maine's term for the executor or administrator) is appointed by the county Probate Court, manages assets that pass through probate, works under the court, and answers to Title 18-C (the Maine Uniform Probate Code). One person can hold both roles at once. When that happens, you wear the trustee hat for trust assets and the personal representative hat for probate assets. The Maine executor duties guide covers the probate side.

Many people with a trust also sign a pour-over will. It directs any asset the settlor left outside the trust into the trust after death. Those stray assets still pass through Maine probate first, and then you distribute them under the trust terms. If the leftover personal property is small, a successor may be able to collect it with a Maine small estate affidavit (personal property up to $52,500 for 2026 deaths) instead of opening a case.

First Steps After the Settlor Dies

Move on these tasks in the first weeks.

  1. Find the trust and every amendment. Read the whole document. Confirm you are the acting trustee. A vacancy in the trusteeship is filled first by the person the trust names as successor (18-B M.R.S. 704), so the document controls who steps up.
  2. Order certified death certificates. Get 10 to 15 copies. Banks, title companies, insurers, and Maine Revenue Services all want an original.
  3. Secure the property. Lock the home if the settlor lived alone, protect valuables and papers, redirect mail, and keep insurance in force.
  4. Get a trust tax ID. After death the trust needs its own Employer Identification Number and can no longer use the settlor's Social Security number. Apply free through the IRS.
  5. Open a trust bank account. Run every trust receipt and payment through it. Separate accounts are not optional. Section 810 requires you to keep trust property apart from your own.

The Notices Maine Requires Within 60 Days

This is the step first-time trustees miss. Section 813 of the Trust Code gives you two 60-day clocks after the settlor dies.

  • Acceptance notice. Within 60 days after you accept the trusteeship, notify the qualified beneficiaries that you accepted and give your name, address, and telephone number (18-B M.R.S. 813(2)(B)).
  • Existence notice. Within 60 days after you learn the formerly revocable trust became irrevocable at the settlor's death, notify the qualified beneficiaries of the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, the right to request a copy of the trust instrument, and the right to a trustee's report (18-B M.R.S. 813(2)(C)).

On request, you must promptly give a beneficiary a copy of the trust instrument (18-B M.R.S. 813(2)(A)). You also have to tell the beneficiaries in advance if you change the method or rate of your compensation (18-B M.R.S. 813(2)(D)). One caveat: the two 60-day notice duties apply to trustees who accept, and to trusts that became irrevocable, on or after July 1, 2005 (18-B M.R.S. 813(5)). Almost every post-death administration you handle today falls inside that date.

While the settlor was alive, your reporting duty was owed to the settlor alone (18-B M.R.S. 813(6)). Death flips that. Now the qualified beneficiaries are the people you keep informed. Save a dated copy of every notice and every request. That file is your best defense if someone later questions how you ran the trust.

Keep Records and Account to the Beneficiaries

Section 810 sets the recordkeeping floor: keep adequate records of the administration, and keep trust property separate from your own. Then section 813(3) tells you what to send the beneficiaries.

Send a report to the distributees of income or principal, and to any other qualified beneficiary who asks, at least once a year and again when the trust ends. The report lists the trust property, its liabilities, receipts, and disbursements, the source and amount of your compensation, the trust assets, and, where feasible, their market values and tax bases. A beneficiary may waive the report in writing and later withdraw that waiver (18-B M.R.S. 813(4)).

Think of this as a running ledger, not a one-time filing. A Maine trust files no routine accounting with the Probate Court, so the report you send the beneficiaries is the record. The probate world has a parallel duty for personal representatives, covered in the Maine probate accounting guide.

Inventory, Value, and Invest the Trust Prudently

Build a written inventory of everything the trust holds:

  • Real estate, with a date-of-death appraisal
  • Bank accounts, CDs, and brokerage accounts
  • Retirement accounts and life insurance payable to the trust
  • Business interests and closely held shares
  • Vehicles, jewelry, and other personal property
  • Digital assets and online accounts

Date-of-death values matter for taxes and for a fair split. Heirs generally receive a stepped-up basis to the date-of-death value, which can erase capital gains on years of appreciation when an asset is later sold.

While you hold and manage trust assets, the prudent investor rule applies (18-B M.R.S. 901). You invest and manage as a prudent investor would, weighing the purposes, terms, and distribution needs of the trust, and you exercise reasonable care, skill, and caution (18-B M.R.S. 902(1)). You judge each decision against the portfolio as a whole and an overall strategy with risk and return goals suited to the trust (18-B M.R.S. 902(2)), and you weigh factors such as economic conditions, inflation, tax effects, liquidity needs, and the expected total return (18-B M.R.S. 902(3)). You do not have to be a market expert. You do have to act carefully and get help when the assets are complex. Section 804 restates the same prudent-person standard for administration generally.

Pay the Settlor's Debts, Expenses, and Taxes

A successor trustee still answers for the settlor's debts before handing money to beneficiaries. Unlike probate, trust administration has no automatic statutory notice-to-creditors step, so you pay known valid debts directly and hold back enough to cover claims you can see coming. The Maine creditor claims guide and the debt payment priority guide explain how the estate side handles claims, which helps when trust and probate assets both exist.

Taxes come in layers:

  • The settlor's final income tax return (Form 1040) covers January 1 through the date of death.
  • The trust's income tax return (Form 1041) starts the day after death, because the trust is now its own taxpayer. Income paid out to beneficiaries is generally taxed to them on a Schedule K-1; income the trust keeps is taxed to the trust, often at higher rates. Maine also has a fiduciary income tax return for trusts with Maine income.
  • Maine estate tax. Maine imposes its own estate tax on larger estates, filed on Form 706ME with Maine Revenue Services. The Maine exclusion is $7,160,000 for deaths in 2026, and the return is generally due nine months after the date of death. Maine has no inheritance tax. Confirm the current-year exclusion with Maine Revenue Services, since it re-indexes every January 1.

Distributing before the trust can cover its debts and taxes is where trustees get personally burned. Hold a reasonable reserve first.

Distribute the Trust and Close It

When the trust is ready to wind up, section 817 governs the payout. You may send the beneficiaries a proposed distribution. If the proposal tells a beneficiary of the right to object and the time to do it, that beneficiary loses the right to object unless they notify you within 30 days (18-B M.R.S. 817(1)). Once an event ends the trust, you proceed to distribute promptly, keeping back a reasonable reserve for debts, expenses, and taxes (18-B M.R.S. 817(2)).

A few practical points:

  • Get a signed receipt from each person who receives property. It documents the distribution and protects you.
  • Watch for continuing sub-trusts. Some trusts do not end at distribution. They create shares that stay in trust for minor children or other beneficiaries, and you keep administering those. A Maine pet trust is one example of a share that lives on for a set purpose.
  • Transfer real estate by trustee's deed. Record the deed with the county Registry of Deeds, which in Maine is a separate office from the Registry of Probate. For real property the settlor left outside the trust, review the Maine transfer-on-death deed guide and the selling inherited property guide.

A release a beneficiary signs is not valid to the extent you induced it by improper conduct, or the beneficiary did not know their rights or the material facts (18-B M.R.S. 817(3)). Full, honest reporting is what makes a release stick.

How a Maine Trustee Gets Paid

Maine has no fixed trustee fee schedule. If the trust does not set your compensation, you are entitled to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances, and a percentage fee is allowed only when it is reasonable (18-B M.R.S. 708(1)). A court weighing reasonableness looks at the time and labor, the difficulty and skill involved, the customary local fee, the amounts involved and results obtained, time limits, and your experience and ability. If the trust does fix your fee, a court may allow more or less when your duties differ greatly from what the trust anticipated or the stated fee is unreasonably high or low (18-B M.R.S. 708(2)). A qualified beneficiary can petition for a review of your compensation, and an overpaid trustee can be ordered to refund the excess (18-B M.R.S. 708(3)). Many family trustees waive pay to leave more for the beneficiaries.

When a Maine Court Gets Involved

Trust administration usually avoids court, but a judge can step in.

  • Filling a vacancy. If a trusteeship needs filling and no cotrustee remains, the spot goes first to the successor named in the trust, then to someone the qualified beneficiaries name by unanimous agreement, then to a court appointee (18-B M.R.S. 704(3)).
  • Removing a trustee. The settlor, a cotrustee, or a beneficiary may ask the court to remove a trustee, or the court may act on its own (18-B M.R.S. 706(1)). Grounds include a serious breach of trust, lack of cooperation among cotrustees that impairs administration, unfitness or persistent failure to administer effectively, and a major change of circumstances where removal serves the beneficiaries and a suitable successor is available (18-B M.R.S. 706(2)).
  • Breach of trust. A trustee who breaches the trust is liable to the affected beneficiaries for the greater of the amount needed to restore lost value and distributions, or the profit the trustee made from the breach (18-B M.R.S. 1002(1)).
  • Time to sue. A beneficiary must sue within one year after you send a report that adequately discloses a potential claim and states the time to sue (18-B M.R.S. 1005(1)). Without such a report, the outside limit is six years after the trustee's removal, resignation, or death, the end of the beneficiary's interest, or the end of the trust (18-B M.R.S. 1005(3)). A clear report starts the shorter clock, which is one more reason to report well.

Someone who believes the trust itself is invalid can bring a trust contest on grounds like lack of capacity or undue influence. Those cases run through the county Probate Court.

Common Questions

What is Maine trust administration?

It is the work a successor trustee does to settle a revocable living trust after the settlor dies. You take control of the trust property, notify the qualified beneficiaries, pay debts and taxes, keep an accounting, and distribute what is left under the trust terms. The Maine Uniform Trust Code, Title 18-B M.R.S., sets the rules, and most of it happens outside the county Probate Court.

What notices must a Maine successor trustee send?

Within 60 days after you accept the trusteeship, notify the qualified beneficiaries of your acceptance and give your name, address, and telephone number. Within 60 days after you learn the trust became irrevocable at the settlor's death, notify them of the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, the right to request a copy of the trust instrument, and the right to a trustee's report (18-B M.R.S. 813). Provide a copy of the trust on request.

Does a Maine trust get filed with the Probate Court?

No. A funded revocable trust settles outside the county Probate Court, which is the reason people use one. You do not open a probate case for trust assets, and you file no routine accounting with the court. You still owe the beneficiaries the duties in Title 18-B, and a court can step in if a dispute arises.

How does a Maine trustee account to the beneficiaries?

Keep adequate records and keep trust property separate from your own (18-B M.R.S. 810). Send a report at least once a year and at the end of the trust that lists the trust property, liabilities, receipts, disbursements, the source and amount of your compensation, and the assets with their market values and tax bases (18-B M.R.S. 813). A beneficiary can waive the report in writing.

Can a Maine successor trustee be paid?

Yes. If the trust does not set your pay, you are entitled to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances (18-B M.R.S. 708). A percentage fee is allowed only if it is reasonable. A qualified beneficiary can ask a court to review the amount, and an overpaid trustee can be ordered to refund the excess. Many family trustees waive pay.

Does a Maine trust avoid estate tax?

No. A trust avoids probate, not tax. Maine imposes its own estate tax on larger estates, reported on Form 706ME, with a $7,160,000 exclusion for 2026 deaths and a return generally due nine months after death. Maine has no inheritance tax. The trust may also owe income tax on earnings it keeps rather than distributes.

Can Maine beneficiaries remove the trustee?

Yes. The settlor, a cotrustee, or a beneficiary may ask the court to remove a trustee (18-B M.R.S. 706). A court can remove a trustee for a serious breach of trust, lack of cooperation among cotrustees, unfitness or persistent failure to administer the trust, or a major change of circumstances when removal best serves the beneficiaries and a suitable successor is available.

Related Maine Guides

This guide is general information about Maine trusts. Confirm anything that affects your situation with a licensed Maine attorney or a tax professional.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of July 21, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Maine can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

Need help with your probate case?

Answer a few questions to see whether Maine probate is required and which process applies.

Take the 2-minute assessment
All Maine guides← Back to all articles