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Rhode Island Trust Administration
Support GuideRhode Island37 min read

Rhode Island Trust Administration

Rhode Island trust administration for a successor trustee: the 30-day § 44-23-2 statement, prudent investor duties, and the affidavit of trust you record.

By Settled Editorial

Rhode Island trust administration is the work a successor trustee does once the settlor dies. You take control of the trust property, file a sworn statement with the Division of Taxation within 30 days, invest under the Rhode Island Uniform Prudent Investor Act, settle the taxes, then distribute what the document directs. Rhode Island never adopted the Uniform Trust Code, so Title 18 of the General Laws runs this job.

Nobody hands you a schedule. A funded trust settles outside the city or town Probate Court, so no clerk mails you a deadline, and the one hard statutory clock in this area sits in the tax title where almost no trustee looks. Here is the sequence, with the section behind each step.

Rhode Island Runs on Title 18, Not the Uniform Trust Code

Start by throwing out the section numbers in any national trust article you have already read. Rhode Island has no Uniform Trust Code. Title 18 of the General Laws is titled Fiduciaries, and reading its chapter index tells you what the state actually has: chapter 18-1 Application of Laws to Trusts, chapter 18-2 Appointment of Fiduciaries, chapter 18-4 Powers of Fiduciaries, chapter 18-6 Accounting, chapter 18-9.1 Spendthrift Trusts, chapter 18-9.2 Qualified Dispositions in Trust, chapter 18-13 the Rhode Island Uniform Custodial Trust Act, chapter 18-14 the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act, and chapter 18-15 the Rhode Island Uniform Prudent Investor Act.

Three absences follow, and each one changes what you do this month.

  • No statutory notice deadline. Rhode Island imposes no 60-day letter to qualified beneficiaries and defines no class called qualified beneficiaries at all. Your notice duty comes from the document and from ordinary fiduciary law, not from a section you can point to.
  • No statutory contest window for a revocable trust. Mailing beneficiaries a copy of the trust does not start a shortened limitation period the way it does in Uniform Trust Code states. A Rhode Island will contest runs on its own appeal clocks and reaches the will, not the trust.
  • No trust registration. You file nothing with the city or town Probate Court to open a living trust administration.

What Rhode Island does say is that the document governs. Section 18-2-7 applies the successor-trustee sections only where the instrument expresses no contrary intention. Section 18-4-2(a) grants the statutory powers only to a trust "in which no provision is made to the contrary." Section 18-15-1(b) calls the prudent investor rule a default rule the trust may expand, restrict, eliminate or otherwise alter. Read your instrument twice, amendments included, before you read anything else.

Which law even applies is its own question when the family moved. Section 18-1-1 attaches Rhode Island law to a trust of personal property when the instrument says so, the trust is administered here, and the property sits here; section 18-1-2 reaches the same result through a Rhode Island trustee, and section 18-1-3 through a settlor who lived here when the trust was made.

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The 30-Day Filing Almost No Rhode Island Trustee Knows About

This is the deadline that separates a careful trustee from a late one, and it is not in Title 18.

Section 44-23-2 is headed "Statements filed by trustees." Where a person appointed a trustee during life, named beneficiaries, and provided either for administration of the trust after the death or for termination and distribution at the death, the trustee must file a sworn statement with the tax administrator within 30 days after the death of the creator of the trust. A trustee of property subject to a power of appointment files on the same 30-day clock measured from the death of the donee of the power.

The statement has to show six things:

  1. The trust agreement, if any.
  2. The full and fair cash value of the trust estate.
  3. The extent of the duration of the trust.
  4. The manner provided for its termination.
  5. The names and addresses of the beneficiaries of the trust.
  6. Anything else about the trust the tax administrator considers necessary to assess the tax on the estate.

That description fits nearly every funded revocable living trust in Rhode Island. The clock runs from the death, not from the day you accept, not from the day you find the document, and not from the day the bank finally answers.

The Division of Taxation publishes no form for it. Its estate tax forms page lists RI-706, the RI-706 instructions, RI-4768, ESTATE-V, IT-95, T-77 and T-79, and nothing for the trustee statement, so you draft and swear the statement yourself. Call the Division at the number on its estate tax page before you send it, and keep the mailing receipt with the trust file. Thirty days is short enough that a trustee who spends the first month grieving and gathering paperwork is already late.

Take the Seat, Then Take Control of the Property

Rhode Island writes no acceptance procedure for a successor named in a living trust. You step in under the terms of the document, which usually asks for a signed acceptance and a death certificate.

Section 18-15-4 gives you the first real instruction: within a reasonable time after accepting a trusteeship or receiving trust assets, review the trust assets and make and implement decisions about retaining or disposing of them, so the portfolio matches the purposes, terms and distribution requirements of the trust. A concentrated stock position the settlor loved is exactly what that section is aimed at.

Work this list in the first month.

  1. Order certified death certificates. Ten to fifteen. Banks, insurers, transfer agents and the Division of Taxation each want an original. The Rhode Island first steps guide covers where to order them.
  2. Get an EIN for the trust. Once the settlor dies the trust stops riding on the settlor's Social Security number. The IRS issues the number free.
  3. Calendar the 30-day § 44-23-2 statement the day you learn of the death.
  4. Inventory before you retitle. Deeds, brokerage statements, life insurance, bank accounts, business interests, vehicles, the safe deposit box, and anything the settlor never moved into the trust.
  5. Get date-of-death values. Appraise real estate and any closely held business as of the date of death. Those figures set the Rhode Island tax picture and the new income tax basis, which the Rhode Island step-up in basis guide explains.
  6. Keep the insurance in force. A vacant Rhode Island house that loses coverage turns a quiet administration into a claim against you.
  7. Open one trust checking account. Every receipt in, every disbursement out. Commingling is the breach that surfaces first.

If the trust names no successor, or the named successor will not serve, section 18-2-1 sends the question to the superior court. Any person interested under the trust, the continuing trustees, or the personal representative of the last surviving trustee may apply, and the court appoints after notice to the parties in interest. Section 18-2-3 adds that the court does not have to restore the original number of trustees. When the court appoints and the trust holds real estate, section 18-2-9 requires a certified copy of the decree to be recorded in the land evidence records of the city or town where the land lies.

A testamentary trust is a different courthouse. Section 8-9-9 gives the city or town Probate Court jurisdiction over removing or filling a vacancy of a trustee of a trust established under a will, and over terminating such a trust, and section 33-22-21(a)(7) prices that petition at $30. Living-trust questions go to the superior court; will-created trust questions go to the Probate Court in the city or town. Find yours through the Rhode Island Probate Court directory.

One more surprise sits in a 2025 amendment. Section 18-1-5(c), effective June 13, 2025, says the attorney's client is only the person acting as trustee, and that a successor trustee is not the attorney's client solely by reason of succeeding the person the attorney advised. The lawyer who drafted the trust for your mother is not automatically your lawyer. Subsection (d) lets the former trustee and the successor agree in writing to share privileged communications without waiving the privilege, which is worth doing early.

The Powers the Trust Hands You by Default

Section 18-4-2(a) supplies the standard toolkit to any inter vivos or testamentary trust that says nothing to the contrary: full discretion to invest and reinvest in real or personal property, to sell, lease, partition and exchange, to vote shares by proxy, to act on a corporate reorganization, and on termination to set aside and allocate specific investments at fair value. Subsection (b) then lets the superior court authorize those same powers over an instrument that appears to forbid them, where the authority is or may become necessary to perform the duties and accomplish the purposes of the trust.

Four companion sections come up in real administrations.

  • Section 18-4-4 spells out a power of sale: sell all or part, together or in lots, at auction or by private contract, vary a contract, buy in at auction, or rescind and resell without answering for the resulting loss. Subsection (b) yields to a contrary intention in the document.
  • Section 18-4-9 lets surviving cotrustees exercise a joint power unless the instrument says otherwise, so one trustee's death does not freeze the trust.
  • Section 18-4-26 covers contaminated property. You may inspect and monitor, take action to abate a violation, refuse to accept property into the trust, settle a claim, and disclaim a power that would expose you personally. Subsection (c) charges the cost to income or principal and keeps you off the hook for a drop in value caused by reasonable compliance.
  • Section 18-4-28 gives a power to adjust between principal and income where the trust measures distributions by income. Subsection (b) lists nine factors to weigh, and subsection (c) blocks the adjustment in eight situations, including any adjustment that would benefit you directly or indirectly.

Investing Under the Rhode Island Uniform Prudent Investor Act

Chapter 18-15 is the standard a beneficiary will measure you against, and it applies to trusts existing on and created after August 6, 1996 under section 18-15-11.

Section 18-15-2(a) asks you to invest and manage as a prudent investor would, considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements and other circumstances of the trust, with reasonable care, skill and caution. Subsection (b) judges each holding in the context of the portfolio as a whole rather than on its own. Subsection (c) lists eight circumstances to weigh, among them general economic conditions, the expected tax consequences, other resources of the beneficiaries, and any special value an asset carries for the trust or a beneficiary. Subsection (d) tells you to make a reasonable effort to verify the facts. Subsection (f) holds a trustee who has special skills, or who was named in reliance on a claim of special skills, to those skills.

The rest of the chapter reads like a checklist:

  • Section 18-15-3 requires diversification unless special circumstances mean the purposes of the trust are better served without it.
  • Section 18-15-5 requires you to invest and manage solely in the interest of the beneficiaries.
  • Section 18-15-6 requires impartiality among two or more beneficiaries, taking their differing interests into account. This is the section that settles the fight between the child who wants income and the child who wants the house sold.
  • Section 18-15-7 allows only costs that are appropriate and reasonable in relation to the assets, the purposes of the trust and your own skills.
  • Section 18-15-8 judges compliance on the facts existing when you decided, not by hindsight. Write down why you did what you did, on the day you did it.
  • Section 18-15-9 lets you delegate investment functions and shields you from the agent's decisions if you took reasonable care selecting the agent, setting the scope and terms, and periodically reviewing performance. Subsection (d) pulls the agent into Rhode Island courts by accepting the delegation.

Selling or Mortgaging Rhode Island Real Estate Held in Trust

Here is the step Rhode Island adds that most trustees miss until the closing attorney stops the deal.

Section 34-4-27(a) says property to be held in trust is conveyed to the trustees of the trust, and that any transfer or mortgage of trust property requires recording either the trust instrument as amended or restated, or an affidavit or memorandum of trust. The affidavit is executed by each settlor or by each current trustee and must include nine items:

  1. The name of the trust, each settlor, each original trustee, and the date of the original instrument and of every amendment or restatement.
  2. The names of the current trustees.
  3. Whether the trustees may perform discretionary acts without the consent, concurrence or direction of the beneficiaries.
  4. The trustees' authority to convey, mortgage, lease or grant restrictions or easements, with a copy of the relevant trust provisions attached.
  5. Whether anything in the trust cuts down that power.
  6. Whether the trust has been revoked or otherwise terminated, and if so the trustees' power to convey to effect it.
  7. How trustees are replaced and successors appointed.
  8. When and how the trust terminates, whether it is revocable, and if so what makes it irrevocable.
  9. The date and place of death of the settlor, where that applies.

Item nine is the successor trustee's item. Subsection (b) lets a third party without actual knowledge to the contrary rely on the statements in the affidavit, which is exactly why a title company will ask for it. Subsection (c) says an amendment or revocation constitutes notice to third parties only if it is recorded.

Recording happens in the land evidence records of the city or town where the land sits, not at a county office, because Rhode Island counties keep no records. Section 34-13-7(a) prices a deed of a trustee at $80, with $1 for each additional page under subsection (b). A standalone affidavit or memorandum of trust is not named in that schedule, so it lands in the $45 line for any other instrument not otherwise expressly provided for by statute. Section 42-8.1-20(b) adds a $4 Historical Records Trust assessment to every instrument recorded under § 34-13-7. Confirm the total with the clerk in that city or town before you mail anything, since page counts move the number.

If the sale is of the settlor's home, the tax lien discussed below has to come off the title too. The Rhode Island selling inherited property guide walks that closing.

Accounting: Optional Filing, Permanent Effect

Chapter 18-6 is short and the shape of it matters. Section 18-6-3 is one sentence: a trustee may apply to the superior court for the allowance of an account. Nothing requires a periodic filing, and nothing sets a due date. Most Rhode Island living trusts settle without a court account at all.

Going to court buys finality. Section 18-6-6 says that after a final decree has been entered on an account, it "shall not be impeached except for fraud or manifest error." That is a high wall, and it is the reason a trustee facing an unhappy family sometimes files anyway.

Section 18-6-4 sets the price of that protection. Notice goes by delivery or registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the attorney general where public charitable interests exist, to everyone who received or accumulated income during the accounting period, to everyone who received or could have received principal, to everyone who would share if a life tenancy ended or the trust became distributable that day, and to the executor or administrator of any deceased person on that list. Subsection (b) treats a written assent or a written waiver as equivalent to notice. Subsection (c) requires the court to appoint a guardian ad litem where unborn, unascertained or legally incompetent interests are represented only by you, and subsection (e) charges the guardian's compensation to income or principal as the court directs.

Even without a court filing, keep an account the way the statute would want to see one, and send it to the beneficiaries yourself. An informal annual statement showing property, receipts, disbursements, your own compensation and the asset list answers most questions before they turn into a petition. A trustee who also serves as executor files a separate court account in the estate; the Rhode Island probate accounting guide covers that filing, the 90-day inventory and the tax clearance that gates the estate's final account.

Your Pay and Your Expenses

Section 18-6-1 entitles every trustee under any trust instrument to reasonable expenses and costs incurred in executing the trust, and to reasonable compensation for services rendered. You may charge annually or from time to time, and you may apportion the charges equitably between principal and income as you determine.

Rhode Island publishes no percentage schedule for trustees and no statutory cap. Reasonable is the whole standard, so build the record that supports it: hours and dates, the asset mix, the property you managed, the disputes you handled, and any comparable corporate trustee fee schedule you looked at. Where the trust names a figure, the document controls that point under § 18-4-2(a).

The Rhode Island Tax a Trust Does Not Avoid

Families buy trusts to skip the courthouse. The Division of Taxation is a separate matter.

The threshold is measured on the gross estate, and the Division publishes the figure each year: more than $1,838,056 for deaths on or after January 1, 2026, $1,802,431 for 2025, and $1,774,583 for 2024. Section 44-22-1.1(a)(4) supplies the mechanism, a $64,400 Rhode Island credit indexed each January 1 by the CPI-U measured as of September 30 of the prior year, compounded and rounded up to the nearest $5. Subsection (c) reads "gross estate" the way federal law reads it in a comparable context, which is how revocable trust property lands inside the measurement. Subsection (d) then takes all values as finally determined for federal estate tax purposes.

Four rules follow that land squarely on a trustee.

  • Nine months, not twelve. Section 44-23-16 makes the tax due and payable nine months after the date of death. Interest runs from the due date at the § 44-1-7 rate without regard to any extension, and a failure-to-pay addition of 0.5 percent per month accrues to a maximum of 25 percent unless the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect. Form RI-4768 buys six months to file, not to pay.
  • You are personally liable. Section 44-23-9(a) says notice of the tax is mailed to the executor, administrator or trustee, that failure to receive it excuses nothing, that the tax remains a lien on the estate until paid, and that all executors, administrators and trustees are personally liable for it until it is paid. Section 44-23-13(a) repeats that liability and subsection (c) keeps the lien on property acquired in substitution for the taxed property while it remains in your hands.
  • The lien touches the house. Section 44-23-12 has the tax administrator notify the recorder of deeds or the city or town clerk so the lien is noted in the land records. Form T-77 requests discharge of the lien on real property and Form T-79 requests the waiver covering securities, and both go in with the return. Section 44-23-38 ends the lien against real estate ten years after the death regardless of the date of death, which is a long time to leave a title clouded.
  • Someone still files the return. Section 44-23-1 puts the nine-month sworn statement on every executor, administrator and heir-at-law, and bands the fee by date of death: $50 for a death before January 1, 2025, and no fee on or after. Where a fully funded trust means no probate case ever opens, work out with the Division who signs the RI-706 before the nine months run. The Rhode Island estate tax guide covers Form RI-706 and the return the trust does not avoid.

Distribute the trust before the tax is settled and you are chasing beneficiaries with your own money on the line. Hold a written reserve and say so.

Ending a Trust That Is Too Small to Run

Rhode Island's small-trust escape hatch works differently from most states, and reading only subsection (a) will mislead you.

Section 18-4-24(a) lets a corporate trustee authorized under chapter 19-3.1 end a trust in whole or in part, in its sole discretion, when the current market value of the trust principal is less than $200,000. A spendthrift or similar protective provision does not block it. Subsection (e) is the half that catches families: superior court approval is required whenever there is no corporate trustee, so an individual serving alone petitions the court after giving the same notice.

The notice sequence in subsections (c) and (d) is exacting. Written notice goes by certified mail to every interested person, meaning any living person or existing organization who is a current income beneficiary or who would be a vested remainderman if the trust ended that day. The notice states the intent to terminate, includes a schedule of current trust assets and the plan of distribution, sets out the right to object, and says the trustee may proceed despite an objection. An interested person then has 30 days to object in writing. A reformulated plan restarts the 30 days. After the final notice, an interested person has three months to petition the superior court, and the trustee may not distribute until three months from the date the last interested person received notice, unless that person waives the right in writing.

Subsection (b) governs the payout: principal and income less fees and expenses go to beneficiaries and remaindermen in the proportions the trustee determines appropriate, the recipient releases the trustee on distribution, a minor's share may be converted and delivered to a custodian under the Rhode Island Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, a marital-deduction trust goes only to the surviving spouse, and a charitable-deduction trust goes only where the deduction survives.

Two neighbors are worth knowing. Section 18-4-25 lets the court divide one trust or consolidate trusts with a common creator or common beneficiaries, on petition and for good cause, where the change fits the creator's intent and serves the beneficiaries as a whole. Section 18-9.1-1 confirms that a settlor may impose valid spendthrift restraints, so a beneficiary's creditor pressure does not by itself justify an early payout.

Distribute, Then Keep the File

Rhode Island gives you no statutory proposal-for-distribution that cuts off objections after 30 days. Build the same protection by hand.

Send each beneficiary a written statement of what they are receiving and how you calculated it, attach the account, and ask for a signed receipt and release before the check goes out. Where the trust ends under § 18-4-24, subsection (b)(1) makes that release part of the statute. Where it ends under its own terms, the release is a contract you negotiate, and a beneficiary who signs without the numbers in front of them has an argument later. Hold a reserve for the final income tax return, the estate tax if any is due, and the accountant's bill, then close the account.

Keep the file for at least ten years. The § 44-23-38 lien period alone runs that long, and a beneficiary who was a minor at distribution has time on their side.

Digital Accounts Held by the Trust

Rhode Island's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act splits trustee access by who opened the account.

Section 33-27.1-11 covers the trustee who is the original user, and a custodian discloses the full account including the content of electronic communications unless the court or the trust says otherwise. Section 33-27.1-13 covers the more common case, a trustee who is not the original user, and it entitles you to a catalogue of electronic communications and other digital assets, though not the content, on a written request supported by a certified copy of the trust instrument, an affidavit or memorandum under § 34-4-27 sworn under penalty of perjury that the trust exists and you are currently acting, the account identifier, and evidence linking the account to the trust. Section 33-27.1-15(a) applies the duties of care, loyalty and confidentiality to digital property the same way they apply to tangible property. The Rhode Island digital assets guide carries the request letters and the custodian rules.

Note the overlap: the same § 34-4-27 affidavit that clears a real estate closing also unlocks a custodian's file. Draft it once and keep certified copies.

Is There Still a Rhode Island Probate Case?

Most trust plans carry a pour-over will that sweeps stray assets into the trust. Section 18-14-2 validates that devise even though the trust is amendable or revocable, and even where it was amended after the will was signed or after the death. Subsection (c) says the property becomes part of the trust rather than a separate testamentary trust, and subsection (d) makes the gift lapse if the trust was revoked or terminated before the death.

Those assets still travel through the city or town Probate Court before they reach you. Check for a bank account, a vehicle or a parcel the settlor never retitled.

Where what sits outside the trust is small, section 33-24-1 offers voluntary informal administration. The estate must consist entirely of personal property whose inventory value under § 33-9-1, exclusive of tangible personal property, does not exceed $15,000, and the statement may be filed 30 days after the death in the Probate Court of the city or town where the decedent lived, for a $30 fee plus $5 for the certification of appointment. Any real property outside the trust rules this route out. Anything larger means a full case: start with the Rhode Island probate guide and the Rhode Island executor duties guide, since one person often wears both hats.

If you are reading this before anyone has died, the planning side belongs in how the trust was set up and in how to avoid probate in Rhode Island, which matters more here than in most states because Rhode Island has no transfer-on-death deed.

Deadlines at a Glance

StepTimingAuthority
Trustee's sworn statement to the tax administrator30 days after the settlor's death§ 44-23-2
Review trust assets and act on retention or dispositionReasonable time after accepting or receiving assets§ 18-15-4
Rhode Island estate tax due and payable9 months after the date of death§ 44-23-16
Estate tax statement by executor, administrator or heir-at-law9 months after the death§ 44-23-1
Objection window on a small-trust termination notice30 days after the interested person receives notice§ 18-4-24(d)(1)
Wait before distributing after a contested small-trust termination3 months from the last interested person's receipt§ 18-4-24(d)(4)
Estate tax lien on Rhode Island real estate expires10 years after the death§ 44-23-38

Mistakes That Cost Rhode Island Trustees

  • Missing the § 44-23-2 statement. Thirty days from the death, with no reminder and no published form. Calendar it before you do anything else.
  • Using Uniform Trust Code advice. There is no 60-day notice, no qualified beneficiary definition and no 120-day contest window in Rhode Island. A checklist built on another state's code will have you doing work the law does not ask for while missing the work it does.
  • Assuming an individual trustee can close a small trust alone. Section 18-4-24(a) is a corporate trustee power. Subsection (e) sends everyone else to the superior court.
  • Selling the house without recording first. Section 34-4-27 requires the trust instrument or an affidavit or memorandum of trust on the land records before a transfer or mortgage, and the closing stops without it.
  • Distributing before the tax picture is settled. Sections 44-23-9 and 44-23-13 make the trustee personally liable until the tax is paid.
  • Holding a concentrated position out of sentiment. Sections 18-15-2 and 18-15-3 measure the portfolio as a whole and require diversification unless special circumstances say otherwise.
  • Treating the drafting attorney as your attorney. Section 18-1-5(c) says otherwise. Retain counsel in your own name, or get the sharing agreement subsection (d) allows.
  • Skipping the paper trail. Section 18-15-8 judges you on the facts as they stood when you decided. Contemporaneous notes are the only version of that record you can produce later.

Getting Help

Bring in a licensed Rhode Island attorney where the trust holds a business or hard-to-value property, where the gross estate is anywhere near the Division of Taxation threshold, where a beneficiary objects, where you are asked to terminate or modify the trust, or where the settlor also left probate assets. A trust that has been sitting unadministered for years, or one created under chapter 18-9.2 as a qualified disposition, is not a self-service project.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a Rhode Island successor trustee do first?

Read the trust document, then file the statement R.I. Gen. Laws § 44-23-2 requires. That section gives a trustee 30 days after the death of the person who created the trust to file a sworn statement with the tax administrator showing the trust agreement, the full and fair cash value of the trust estate, how long the trust runs, how it ends, and the names and addresses of the beneficiaries. Order certified death certificates and get a taxpayer ID for the trust in the same first week.

Does Rhode Island have a Uniform Trust Code?

No. Title 18 of the General Laws is titled Fiduciaries, and its chapters are 18-1 Application of Laws to Trusts, 18-2 Appointment of Fiduciaries, 18-4 Powers of Fiduciaries, 18-6 Accounting, 18-9.1 Spendthrift Trusts, 18-9.2 Qualified Dispositions in Trust, 18-13 the Rhode Island Uniform Custodial Trust Act, 18-14 the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act and 18-15 the Rhode Island Uniform Prudent Investor Act. There is no duty-to-inform section and no statutory 60-day beneficiary notice, so advice written against Uniform Trust Code section numbers does not apply here.

Does a Rhode Island trustee file an accounting with a court?

Not automatically. R.I. Gen. Laws § 18-6-3 says a trustee may apply to the superior court for the allowance of an account, which makes it optional rather than periodic. If you do apply, § 18-6-4 sets the notice list, brings in the attorney general where public charitable interests exist, and lets the court appoint a guardian ad litem for unborn or unascertained interests. Section 18-6-6 then makes an allowed account unimpeachable except for fraud or manifest error.

How does a Rhode Island trustee sell real estate held in the trust?

Record paperwork first. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-4-27(a) says any transfer or mortgage of trust property requires recording either the trust instrument as amended or restated, or an affidavit or memorandum of trust carrying nine listed items, including the current trustees, the authority to convey, and the settlor's date and place of death. Section 34-13-7 prices a deed of a trustee at $80 with $1 for each page past the first, and § 42-8.1-20(b) adds a $4 assessment on every recorded instrument.

Does a Rhode Island living trust avoid the estate tax return?

No. The Division of Taxation measures the threshold on the gross estate, which is $1,838,056 for deaths on or after January 1, 2026, and R.I. Gen. Laws § 44-22-1.1(c) reads the term the way federal law reads it, so revocable trust property counts. Section 44-23-16 makes the tax due nine months after the death, and § 44-23-9(a) says all executors, administrators and trustees are personally liable for it until it is paid.

Can a Rhode Island trustee close a small trust without going to court?

Only a corporate trustee can. R.I. Gen. Laws § 18-4-24(a) lets a corporate trustee end a trust holding less than $200,000 in its own discretion, after the notice and 30-day objection sequence in subsections (c) and (d). Subsection (e) says superior court approval is required whenever there is no corporate trustee, so an individual serving alone petitions the court instead.

Is the family lawyer who drafted the trust now my lawyer?

Not by succession. R.I. Gen. Laws § 18-1-5(c), effective June 13, 2025, says the attorney's client is only the person acting as trustee, and that a successor trustee is not the attorney's client solely by reason of succeeding the person the attorney worked with. Subsection (d) lets a trustee and a successor agree to share privileged communications without waiving the privilege.

Related Guides

Every trust carries its own language and its own dates. Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 8-9-9 the Probate Court for the city or town where the settlor lived answers questions about a trust created by a will, while living-trust petitions go to the superior court. Check your own document and your own dates with a licensed Rhode Island attorney, and start at the Rhode Island probate hub for the rest of the series.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 2, 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 Rhode Island can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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