A trust accounting shows beneficiaries what came into the trust, what went out, what the trust holds at the end of the period, what the trustee was paid, and who the trustee hired. The trust document and the attorney set when it goes out and to whom. Here is what the document itself contains.
Receipts and disbursements
Every dollar in and out during the period, each one classified as principal or income.
Rent, dividends, and interest are income. The building, the shares, and the bond are principal.
Assets and liabilities
What the trust holds at the end of the period and what it owes. Non-cash assets shown at the value they carry on the trust’s books, with market value alongside where it is useful.
Compensation and agents
What the trustee was paid for the period. Who the trustee hired, how they are related to the trustee, and what they were paid.
Why principal and income is the work
An income beneficiary is entitled to what the assets produce. A remainder beneficiary is entitled to the assets. The classification on every transaction decides which beneficiary that dollar belongs to.
The trust document sets the rules. Where it is silent, California’s fiduciary income and principal rules fill in, and the trustee’s own decisions can shift the allocation as well. The books follow the trust and the trustee.
A trust holding a rental property, a brokerage account, and a business interest produces hundreds of these calls a year. Each one affects what someone is owed.
When it goes to court
It gets rebuilt in the probate schedule format, summary of account with charges and credits and one schedule per category. The attorney files it. Streamline produces the schedules from the same records.
Streamline Bookkeeping prepares trust accountings and keeps the underlying records. More on the trust accounting page.
*Bookkeeping services only. Not legal or tax advice. What a specific trust requires comes from the trust document and the attorney.*
