successor trustee
Reviewed by Owen Hathaway, AttorneyUpdated June 5, 2026The person or institution that takes over running a trust when the original trustee dies, resigns, or becomes unable to serve.
A successor trustee is the individual or entity named to step in and administer a trust when the acting trustee can no longer serve, commonly upon the death or incapacity of the settlor who served as initial trustee of a revocable living trust.
The successor trustee holds the same fiduciary duties as any trustee: to follow the trust's terms, manage assets prudently, and act in the beneficiaries' interests. Naming a capable successor trustee is what makes a living trust function on incapacity and death.
Trustee duties in Colorado follow the Colorado Uniform Trust Code (C.R.S. Title 15, Article 5); in Wyoming, the Wyoming Uniform Trust Code (Wyo. Stat. Title 4, Ch. 10). Both impose default fiduciary standards that the trust document can modify within limits.
Related terms
- revocable living trustA trust created while you are alive that you can change or cancel at any time. It holds your assets so they can pass to the people you choose without probate, and lets a person you name step in to manage things if you become unable to.
- trusteeThe person or institution that holds and manages trust property under the trust's terms, for the benefit of the beneficiaries.
- trust administrationThe ongoing work of running a trust after the settlor's death or incapacity: taking control of assets, notifying beneficiaries, paying expenses, and distributing as the trust directs.