The Trustee's Legal Companion - 8th Edition by Liza Hanks & Carol Elias Zolla (Paperback)

About the Book

"This guide, authored by attorneys with experience in guiding trustees, includes information on how to administer a living trust step by step. It discusses how to: determine whether to accept the role of trustee; establish ongoing trusts for surviving spouses, children, or beneficiaries with special needs; manage and invest trust assets; seek assistance from lawyers, financial planners, and other professionals; address tax obligations and prepare necessary accountings; communicate effectively with beneficiaries; and distribute trust property appropriately. Includes summaries of state laws and a sample trust"--

Book Synopsis

Serving as the trustee of a living trust after someone has died can be a big task. This book shows trustees how to get organized, get moving, and do a good job.

Living trusts are popular estate planning tools, but when you're chosen to serve as a trustee, you might wonder where to begin. The Trustee's Legal Companion has everything you need to get organized, get started, and get the job done. You'll learn how to:

• decide whether to take on the job of trustee


• set up ongoing trusts for surviving spouses, children, or beneficiaries with special needs


• invest trust assets


• get help from lawyers, financial planners, and other experts


• handle taxes and prepare accountings, and


• work effectively with beneficiaries and distribute trust property.

The author--an attorney who has helped many a bewildered trustee--shows you, step by step, how to administer a living trust with confidence.

Review Quotes

"Nolo is a pioneer in both consumer and business self-help books and software." Los Angeles Times

"Nolo is always there in a jam as the nation's premier publisher of do-it-yourself legal books." Newsweek

"The Trustee's Legal Companion serves as a resource for those who have been given the responsibility of administering a living trust by carrying out another person's last wishes, pay their remaining debts and taxes, and distribute their property to relatives and friends. It provides practical, accessible advice and tips on activities such as understanding a trustee's legal duties, identifying and collecting trust assets, finding and working with advisers, investing trusts properly, handling income tax returns for the deceased and the trust, and preparing proper trust accounting reports. The authors are estate planning attorneys with over 20 years of experience, collectively." Eithne O'Leyne, Editor Ringgold, Inc. ProtoView

"Living trusts are popular estate planning tools, but when a person is chosen to serve as a trustee, they probably won't know where to begin. The Trustee's Legal Companion has everything they need to get organized, get started, and get the job done. The authors "attorneys who have helped many a bewildered trustee" show readers, step by step, how to administer a living trust with confidence. Liza Hanks is a Mountain View, California attorney. Carol Elias Zolla is an attorney who practices only in the field of estate planning and administration. Both are certified as Specialists in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. According to Hanks and Zolla, in the old days, only wealthy families created trusts. Those were the folks with the family attorney who knew everyone's names and could be counted on to give advice at every turn. These days, all sorts of people create trusts, many of whom don't have the luxury of a family lawyer and who don't know the first thing about what will happen when the trust actually has to be wrapped up someday. As a result, every day people find themselves stuck with a job that they don't know much about, aren't sure that they can handle, and yet, for many reasons, feel honor bound to take on. That's why they wrote The Trustee's Legal Companion. " Savannah Jones, sirreadalot.org