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New Hampshire Trust Administration
Support GuideNew Hampshire26 min read

New Hampshire Trust Administration

New Hampshire trust administration runs on RSA 564-B: three 60-day notice clocks, yearly beneficiary reports, and a one-year claim bar only a trustee can use.

By Settled Editorial

New Hampshire trust administration is the work a successor trustee does after the settlor dies. You accept the trusteeship, take control of the trust property, send the notices RSA 564-B:8-813 requires within 60 days, pay debts and taxes, report to the qualified beneficiaries, then distribute and close the trust. The New Hampshire Trust Code, RSA 564-B, sets the rules.

Almost none of that happens in a courtroom. The Circuit Court, Probate Division holds exclusive jurisdiction over RSA 564-B trusts under RSA 547:3, I(c) and I(d), yet RSA 564-B:2-201, subsection (b), says a trust is not under continuing judicial supervision unless a judge orders it. So there is no petition to open a trust, no circuit clerk assigned to your file, and no docket number. You are on your own clock, and the duties you owe run to the beneficiaries rather than to a judge.

Three details separate New Hampshire from the neighboring states, and each one trips people up. The 60-day notice clock runs from the death of the last surviving settlor, not just from your acceptance. The mandatory notice list reaches only beneficiaries who have turned 21. And a New Hampshire trustee can shut down the settlor's creditors in one year using a notice the estate administrator cannot send. The sections below work through each step and cite the section that controls it.

Successor Trustee, Administrator, Executor: Three Different Jobs

Get the vocabulary right before anything else, because New Hampshire does not use the words most articles use.

New Hampshire calls the person who settles a probate estate an administrator. RSA 553:1 says the word may include every person to whom the administration of an estate or the execution of a will is granted, and the state never adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so "personal representative" is not the local word. A trustee is a third thing again. Nobody appoints you, no court issues you a certificate of appointment, and no filing fee opens your matter.

Successor trusteeAdministrator
Source of authorityThe trust documentThe Circuit Court, Probate Division
Governing lawRSA 564-BRSA 553 through RSA 556
Property coveredAssets titled in the trustAssets in the decedent's sole name
Court supervisionNone unless ordered (RSA 564-B:2-201)Continuous, with accounts and deadlines
Proof of officeA certification of trust (RSA 564-B:10-1013)Certificate of appointment from the clerk

One person often holds both jobs. When that happens, keep the two sets of books apart from day one. The RSA 554:19 order of payment governs the probate estate, and the RSA 556 claim rules govern claims against the estate. Neither one governs the trust. Our New Hampshire probate guide covers the estate side, and the creditor claims guide covers the RSA 556 clocks.

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The Three 60-Day Clocks in RSA 564-B:8-813

Section 8-813, "Duty to Inform and Report", carries the deadlines that decide whether you started well.

Clock one: the acceptance notice. Subsection (c)(2) gives you 60 days after the later of accepting a trusteeship or the death of the last surviving settlor. You tell the qualified beneficiaries who have reached 21 years of age, plus anyone holding the rights of a qualified beneficiary, that you accepted, and you give your name, address, and telephone number. Read that trigger twice. If you accepted a co-trustee role in 2019 and the settlor died last month, your clock starts at the death, not at the acceptance six years ago.

Clock two: the existence notice. Subsection (c)(3) gives you 60 days after you learn that a formerly revocable trust has become irrevocable, that it has been funded, and that the last surviving settlor has died. This notice tells the same people that the trust exists, that they may request a copy of the trust instrument, and that they have a right to a trustee's report.

Clock three: a change in your pay. Subsection (i) gives you 60 days to notify those same beneficiaries after any change in the method or rate of your compensation. Trustees miss this one constantly, usually when a bank raises a fee schedule mid-administration.

Two more duties sit alongside the clocks. Under subsection (c)(1), a qualified beneficiary aged 21 or older who asks for a copy of the trust instrument gets one promptly. Under subsection (b), you keep those beneficiaries reasonably informed about the administration and the facts they need to protect their interests, and you respond promptly to reasonable requests for information.

A beneficiary may waive the right to a report under subsection (e), and may withdraw that waiver later. Get any waiver in writing and keep it.

What Counts as a Qualified Beneficiary

RSA 564-B:1-103, subsection (12), defines the term. On the date you measure it, a qualified beneficiary is someone who is a distributee or permissible distributee of income or principal right now, or who would become one if the current interests ended, or who would take if the trust ended that day. That reaches past the people currently receiving money to the next layer of remainder takers.

RSA 564-B:1-110 adds others who hold a qualified beneficiary's rights: a charitable organization named to receive distributions, a person appointed to enforce a pet trust under RSA 564-B:4-408, and the director of charitable trusts for a charitable trust with no named charity. Build your notice list from both sections, not from the distribution schedule alone.

First Steps After the Settlor Dies

Work these in the first few weeks.

  1. Find the trust and every amendment. Read all of it. Confirm you are the acting trustee and check whether the document names a co-trustee, a trust advisor, or a trust protector.
  2. Accept in writing. RSA 564-B:7-701 says you accept by following the method the trust names, or by taking delivery of trust property, exercising powers, or otherwise indicating acceptance. A dated acceptance letter fixes your clock and settles later arguments about when it started.
  3. Deliver the will within 30 days. RSA 552:2 requires anyone holding a will to deliver it to the probate court or to the named executor within 30 days of learning of the death. Most trust plans include a pour-over will, so this deadline applies even when everything else stays out of court.
  4. Order certified death certificates. Ten to fifteen copies. Banks, brokerages, title companies, and insurers each want an original.
  5. Secure the trust property. RSA 564-B:8-809 requires reasonable steps to take control of and protect it. Lock the house, keep insurance in force, redirect mail, and photograph contents before anyone visits.
  6. Get a taxpayer identification number. After death the trust needs its own EIN and can no longer report under the settlor's Social Security number. The IRS issues one free.
  7. Open a separate trust account. RSA 564-B:8-810 requires adequate records and requires you to keep trust property separate from your own. Commingling is the single fastest route to personal liability.
  8. Prepare a certification of trust. RSA 564-B:10-1013 lets you hand a bank a short signed certificate instead of the whole trust document. It names the settlor, the acting trustee, the powers, the revocability, the taxpayer ID, and how title is held, and it leaves the dispositive terms out. Anyone who demands the full instrument in bad faith after receiving a valid certification is liable for damages under subsection (h).

If the settlor left assets outside the trust, those still pass through probate before the pour-over will feeds them back. New Hampshire has no small estate affidavit and no dollar threshold that avoids the court, which surprises families every time. Read the New Hampshire small estate rules before you assume a shortcut exists.

Living Trust or Will Trust: Only One Files Accounts

This split does more work in New Hampshire than in most states, and picking the wrong side means either wasted court filings or a missed statutory duty.

A living trust answers to RSA 564-B alone. No account goes to the court. Your reporting duty runs to the beneficiaries under RSA 564-B:8-813, subsection (d).

A trust created under a will answers to RSA 564 as well, and RSA 564 wins any conflict. RSA 564-B:7-710 states that outright: nothing in article 7 modifies RSA 564 as applied to testamentary trusts, and RSA 564 controls where the two disagree. The practical consequences:

  • Annual accounts go to the court. RSA 564:19, I, requires every such trustee to file an annual account of administration in the probate court unless a judge excuses it, and no excuse may run longer than three years, or five years with the attorney general's written approval in a hardship case.
  • Two waivers exist. Under RSA 564:19, II(a), a will admitted to probate on or after January 1, 2012 can waive annual accountings expressly. Under II(b), the interested persons may agree to waive filing, including by a nonjudicial settlement agreement under RSA 564-B:1-111, if the court finds the waiver does not defeat a material purpose of the trust.
  • A bond may be required. RSA 564:1 requires a testamentary trustee to give bond to the judge of probate with sureties, or without sureties in estates of five thousand dollars or less where the judge finds that serves the estate. A living trust runs the other way: RSA 564-B:7-702 requires a bond only when the court finds one needed or the trust demands it.
  • Pay is set by the judge. RSA 564:21 gives a trustee of a non-charitable will trust reasonable expenses and the compensation the judge allows, unless the trust says otherwise. For a corporate or professional trustee, subsection II creates a rebuttable presumption in favor of that firm's published inter vivos fee schedule, backed by an affidavit reciting the schedule and certifying that the beneficiaries were told about it.

Where a trustee does end up at the counter, the fees are statewide, set by the Supreme Court and printed on one Circuit Court schedule dated 07/01/2025. An accounting for a guardian, conservator, or trustee costs $105.00. A petition to appoint a trustee costs $190.00, and a motion for a successor trustee costs $105.00. There is no per-county variation to hunt for. Find your court in the New Hampshire court directory.

Paying the Settlor's Debts

Trust assets are not beyond the settlor's creditors, and the reach is narrower than most beneficiaries fear.

RSA 564-B:5-505, subsection (b), makes the property of a trust that was revocable immediately before death answerable for the settlor's creditors, the costs of administering the estate, and funeral and disposal expenses, only to the extent the probate estate is inadequate to pay them. Subsection (c) applies that rule whether or not the trust carries a spendthrift clause. Life insurance proceeds under RSA 408:6 sit outside it, and so does any claim already barred under RSA 564-B:5-508.

That last carve-out points at the tool worth knowing. RSA 564-B:5-508 gives a trustee a one-year claim bar the estate administrator has no version of. Two routes:

  • Known claims. Send the claimant a notice stating that the settlor died, giving your name and mailing address, the settlor's name, domicile at death, and date of death, and stating that the claim is barred unless a proceeding starts within one year after the date you sent it.
  • Unknown claims. Publish the same notice once in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the settlor was domiciled at death. Unknown claims are barred one year after the publication date.

Neither route reaches a contingent liability or a claim based on an event after the death. Subsection (f) keeps the director of charitable trusts and the Department of Health and Human Services outside the bar, so a Medicaid recovery claim survives it. Subsection (e) protects a trustee who acts in good faith, whether or not you use the section at all.

Do not confuse any of this with the estate clocks. On the probate side, a creditor exhibits a demand within six months of the original grant of administration under RSA 556:3, and no suit may even begin during those first six months. The trust clock and the estate clock start on different events and run for different lengths.

Trust Accounting and the Yearly Report

RSA 564-B:8-813, subsection (d), sets what a report must contain and who gets it. Send it at least annually and at the end of the trust to the distributees and permissible distributees of income or principal, unless the trust says otherwise, and to any qualified beneficiary or rights-holder who asks. Each report covers:

  • The trust property, its liabilities, receipts, and disbursements
  • The source and amount of your compensation
  • A listing of the trust assets and, where feasible, their market values

A vacancy in the trusteeship triggers a report too. Unless a co-trustee stays in office, the former trustee sends one to the qualified beneficiaries aged 21 and over.

Two related duties feed the report. RSA 564-B:8-810 requires adequate records and separate property. RSA 564-B:8-802, subsection (g), requires yearly notice of the rate or method behind any extra compensation a trustee or its affiliate takes for the transactions listed in subsection (f), such as placing trades through an affiliated broker.

Reports do more than satisfy a duty. Under RSA 564-B:10-1005, a report that adequately discloses a potential breach and states the time allowed cuts a beneficiary's window to one year. Skip the reports and the window stays open for three years from your removal, resignation or death, the end of that beneficiary's interest, or the end of the trust. Our New Hampshire probate accounting guide covers the estate-side account, which follows different rules.

Selling Trust Real Estate

Trust land conveys by an ordinary deed. RSA 477:3 governs execution, and the deed records at the registry of deeds in the county where the land lies. The Register of Deeds is a live county office in New Hampshire, unlike the Register of Probate, which no longer runs the courthouse counter.

RSA 564-B:10-1013, subsection (k), adds a New Hampshire step worth taking before a closing. A written certificate signed by the trustee, executed with the formalities a deed requires and recorded in that county registry, is conclusive evidence that the trustee and any successor hold full power to convey. A buyer without actual knowledge to the contrary has no duty to look further into your authority or to follow the money. Paragraph (k)(1) extends the same effect to a certificate filed by a successor trustee, and (k)(2) does the same job for personal property through a notarized certificate delivered to the transferee or transfer agent.

The real estate transfer tax applies to a sale out of a trust the same way it applies to any other sale, at $0.75 per $100 charged to each side under RSA 78-B:1 and RSA 78-B:4. The selling inherited property guide walks through the closing, the transfer tax, and the registry recording in more depth.

Trustee Pay and Expenses

RSA 564-B:7-708 handles compensation for a living trust. Where the trust is silent, you take what is reasonable under the circumstances. Where the trust sets an amount, you take that, subject to a court adjusting it under subsection (b) if your duties turned out to be substantially different from what the settlor contemplated, or the stated figure is unreasonably low or high.

RSA 564-B:7-709 lets you reimburse yourself out of trust property, with interest where appropriate, for expenses properly incurred, and for improperly incurred expenses only so far as needed to prevent unjust enrichment of the trust. Money you advance to protect the trust becomes a lien on trust property.

RSA 564-B:8-805 caps the whole picture: you may incur only costs that are reasonable in relation to the trust property, the purposes of the trust, and your own skills. Pay yourself from the trust account, never from a personal card you reimburse later, and log the hours as you go.

Taxes a New Hampshire Trust Faces

New Hampshire is a light state on death taxes, and the reasoning matters more than the headline.

  • No inheritance tax. RSA 86, the legacy and succession tax, is printed as repealed effective January 1, 2003.
  • No estate tax. RSA 87 is still printed in the RSA, and RSA 87:9, "Chapter Void, When", voids the chapter for estates of people who died after the federal credit for state death taxes was repealed. That credit lapsed for deaths after December 31, 2004, so RSA 87 has produced no tax on a death from January 1, 2005 onward. Saying New Hampshire repealed its estate tax gets the answer right and the reason wrong.
  • No state income tax on the trust. RSA 77, "Taxation of Incomes", the interest and dividends tax, is printed as repealed effective January 1, 2025.
  • Federal tax still applies. An irrevocable trust with income files Form 1041, and trust brackets compress fast. Assets in a revocable trust are included in the settlor's gross estate, so they take a basis adjustment at death. See the step-up in basis guide before selling anything the settlor held for decades.

Distributing and Closing the Trust

RSA 564-B:8-817 runs the ending, and subsection (a) contains a step many trustees skip.

Send the beneficiaries a written proposal for distribution. Tell them, in the proposal itself, that they have a right to object and that the right lapses in 30 days. A beneficiary who does not notify you of an objection within 30 days after the proposal was sent loses the right to object, but only if the proposal carried both statements. Leave either one out and the window never closes.

Subsection (b) then requires you to proceed expeditiously, subject to keeping a reasonable reserve for debts, expenses, and taxes. Hold enough back to cover the final tax return and the last professional bills, and say in writing what the reserve is for.

Two protections round out the section. A release a beneficiary signs is invalid under subsection (c) if you induced it improperly or the beneficiary did not know their rights or the material facts. And under subsection (d), a person who receives a distribution they were not entitled to must return it if a court later says so.

Keep the file. Records supporting the final accounting should stay in your hands for several years after the last check clears.

When a Beneficiary Pushes Back

RSA 564-B:2-201, subsection (d), lists who may go to court to enforce the trust: a settlor, a qualified beneficiary, a trustee, a person the trust gives enforcement power, and the director of charitable trusts for a charitable trust. That is a short list, and a disappointed non-beneficiary is not on it.

Removal runs on two tracks. RSA 564-B:7-706 lets the settlor, a co-trustee, or a beneficiary ask the court to remove you, and lets the court act on its own. Grounds include a serious breach of trust, a lack of cooperation among co-trustees that impairs administration, unfitness or persistent failure to administer effectively, and a substantial change of circumstances where removal serves the beneficiaries and a suitable successor is available. RSA 564:9 gives the judge a parallel power over a trustee found incompetent or unsuitable, and subsection III applies that section to RSA 564-B trusts.

If a vacancy has to be filled, RSA 564-B:7-704 sets the order for a non-charitable trust: the person the trust names, then a person the qualified beneficiaries appoint unanimously, then a person the court appoints.

Not every dispute needs a judge. RSA 564-B:1-111 allows a nonjudicial settlement agreement among interested persons on matters that do not violate a material purpose of the trust. That is how many New Hampshire families resolve an ambiguous distribution clause without a filing fee.

One boundary you cannot draft around: RSA 564-B:1-105, subsection (b), lists what the trust terms never override. The duty to act in good faith and in accordance with the trust's terms, purposes, and beneficiary interests is on that list, as are the court's powers over bonds and unreasonable compensation and the statutory limitation periods. A trust document that appears to waive your good-faith duty does not.

Common Mistakes

  • Starting the 60-day clock at acceptance rather than at the death. RSA 564-B:8-813, subsection (c)(2), keys the deadline to the later of the two, which for a trustee who accepted years earlier is the last surviving settlor's death.
  • Notifying only the current income beneficiaries. Remainder takers who would receive if the trust ended today are qualified beneficiaries under RSA 564-B:1-103, subsection (12).
  • Filing an account for a living trust. No court supervises it unless a judge orders supervision. Filing anyway invites the oversight the settlor paid to avoid.
  • Failing to account for a will trust. RSA 564:19 requires it, RSA 564-B:7-710 makes RSA 564 control, and the waivers in II are narrow.
  • Letting the RSA 564-B:5-508 year run unused. The bar starts only when you send or publish the notice, so a trustee who never sends one carries the claim risk indefinitely.
  • Sending a distribution proposal without the objection language. Skipping the two required statements leaves the 30-day window in RSA 564-B:8-817 permanently open.
  • Paying yourself before telling anyone. RSA 564-B:8-813, subsection (i), gives you 60 days to disclose a change in the method or rate of your compensation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is New Hampshire trust administration?

It is the work a successor trustee does to settle a trust after the settlor dies. You accept the trusteeship, take control of the trust property, send the notices RSA 564-B:8-813 requires, pay the settlor's debts and taxes, report to the qualified beneficiaries, then distribute what is left and close the trust. The New Hampshire Trust Code, RSA 564-B, governs the job.

When does the New Hampshire 60-day trustee notice clock start?

Later than most people expect. RSA 564-B:8-813, subsection (c)(2), gives you 60 days after the later of accepting the trusteeship or the death of the last surviving settlor. A second 60-day clock in (c)(3) starts when you learn that a formerly revocable trust has become irrevocable, that it was funded, and that the last surviving settlor has died.

Who has to receive the New Hampshire trustee notice?

Qualified beneficiaries who have reached 21 years of age, plus anyone who holds the rights of a qualified beneficiary under RSA 564-B:1-110. New Hampshire writes the age of 21 into RSA 564-B:8-813 itself, so a 19-year-old remainder beneficiary is outside the mandatory notice list even though the trust still owes that person a duty of good faith.

Does a New Hampshire trustee file an accounting with the Probate Division?

A living trust does not. RSA 564-B:2-201, subsection (b), says a trust is not subject to continuing judicial supervision unless the court orders it. A trust created under a will is the exception: RSA 564:19 makes that trustee file an annual account with the probate court unless the will waives it or the interested persons agree to waive it and the court approves.

Can a New Hampshire trustee cut off the settlor's creditors?

Yes, and this is a tool the estate administrator does not have. RSA 564-B:5-508 lets you send notice to a known claimant or publish notice once in a newspaper of general circulation in the settlor's county of domicile. A claim is then barred unless the claimant starts a proceeding within one year of the send or publication date. The bar does not reach the director of charitable trusts or the Department of Health and Human Services.

How much does a New Hampshire trustee get paid?

If the trust document sets your pay, you take that, though a court may adjust an amount that is unreasonably low or high under RSA 564-B:7-708, subsection (b). If the trust is silent, you are entitled to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances. A trustee of a non-charitable trust created under a will is paid what the judge allows under RSA 564:21.

How long do New Hampshire beneficiaries have to sue a trustee?

One year after you send a report that adequately discloses a potential breach and tells the beneficiary how long they have to act, under RSA 564-B:10-1005, subsection (a). Without such a report, the window is three years from the first of your removal, resignation or death, the end of the beneficiary's interest, or the end of the trust.

Related Guides

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 3, 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 New Hampshire can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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