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Reviewed by Owen Hathaway, AttorneyUpdated June 5, 2026The person or institution that holds and manages trust property under the trust's terms, for the benefit of the beneficiaries.
A trustee is the party that holds legal title to trust assets and manages them according to the trust document and the law, for the benefit of the beneficiaries. The trustee's duties include prudent investment, impartiality among beneficiaries, recordkeeping, and accounting.
In a revocable living trust the settlor usually serves as initial trustee; a successor trustee takes over on incapacity or death. A trustee is a fiduciary and is personally accountable for mismanagement.
The same title appears in other settings. A professional or corporate trustee, for example a bank trust department or trust company, serves in this same role for a fee, often chosen for neutrality, continuity, or investment expertise. A bankruptcy trustee fills a related but separate office: the bankruptcy estate is itself a kind of trust, and that trustee administers it for creditors and the debtor under the Bankruptcy Code rather than under a trust document.
Trustee powers and duties follow the Colorado Uniform Trust Code (C.R.S. Title 15, Article 5) and the Wyoming Uniform Trust Code (Wyo. Stat. Title 4, Ch. 10). Both supply default rules that a well-drafted trust can tailor.
Related terms
- fiduciaryA person legally required to act in someone else's best interest, with duties of loyalty and care. It is the highest standard the law imposes.
- successor trusteeThe person or institution that takes over running a trust when the original trustee dies, resigns, or becomes unable to serve.
- 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.
- conservatorA person a court appoints to manage the finances and property of someone who can't manage their own, distinct from a guardian, who handles personal care.
- Chapter 7The most common form of bankruptcy: eligible debts are wiped out in a few months, with exemptions protecting most or all of an honest debtor's property.
- Chapter 13A bankruptcy that reorganizes debt into a three-to-five-year repayment plan — used to keep a house, catch up on arrears, or when income is too high for Chapter 7.
- bankruptcy estateEverything a debtor owns at filing, gathered into a single legal pool. Exemptions then pull protected property back out to the debtor.
- bankruptcy trusteeThe fiduciary who administers a debtor's bankruptcy estate under the Bankruptcy Code. A Chapter 7 trustee gathers and sells non-exempt property to pay creditors; a Chapter 13 trustee collects the debtor's plan payments and distributes them. The trustee runs the estate for creditors and debtor alike, not as either side's advocate.