What is a Standard Trustee Fee?

 In Revocable Trusts, Trustee

Standard Trustee Fee:

If no fee is mentioned in the trust documents, what would be a reasonable amount for a routine administration of the trust (percentage and/or amount)?

trust-fee-professional-trustee-estate-planning-attorney-Wellesley-MA

Answer:

Trustees are entitled to “reasonable” compensation whether or not the trust explicitly provides for such. Typically, professional trustees, such as banks, trust companies, and some law firms, charge a trustee fee between 1.0% and 1.5% of trust assets per year, depending in part on the size of the trust. They charge a higher percentage for smaller trusts, typically under $1 million, and less for larger trusts, typically over $2 million, since the amount of work involved is more or less the same no matter the size of the trust.

In the past, professional trustees would often charge a trustee fee of both a percentage of the trust principal and a percentage of the trust’s annual income, in part because trusts often provide that the income and principal beneficiaries are different. For instance, a trust might provide that all of the income be paid to a surviving spouse but that the principal be preserved to pass on to the children upon the spouse’s death. If the trustee fee came solely from the trust principal, it would seem that the surviving spouse would be getting a free ride if the income stream would not share the expense. Nevertheless, with the decline in trust income in recent years due to chronically low interest rates, it has become customary to charge the fee only to trust principal.

While percentage fees are standard, this can be problematic for smaller trusts. A trust holding $200,000 and paying a fee of 1.5% would pay an annual fee of $3,000, which may or may not cover the trustee’s costs. Some professional trustees charge a minimum of $5,000 a year. In my own practice, where we end up being trustees of last resort for a number of smaller trusts—cases where there’s no appropriate person in the family to act as trustee and the trust is too small to engage a traditional bank or trust company—we charge our standard hourly rates for our work plus 0.5% per year. For a trust holding $200,000, for instance, this would entail an extra charge of $1,000 a year.

Fees are less standard when a non-professional acts as trustee, either on her own or in conjunction with a professional trustee. When the professional trustee is doing most of the heavy lifting, many non-professional trustees, who are often family members, take no fee. However, just as often, they do take a fee, especially if they are not directly related to the grantor, for instance if they are a niece or nephew. The standard I’ve seen is 0.25%, which on a trust holding $1 million would be $2,500 a year. When there’s no professional trustee acting, the non-professional trustee can certainly charge a higher fee and can use the professional standards as a guide. However, they should look at other trust costs. For instance, professional trustees usually take care of the investments as part of their function. If the trust is hiring an investment advisor, that cost should be considered in determining the trustee’s fee so that together they don’t get too high.

Survey Results:

An article published online by Wealth Advisor reports on a survey of the fees charged by national trust companies which are consistent with the information above. Annual fees range from 0.50% to 1.0% of trust assets up to $1 million with minimum fees ranging from $100 to $8,000, with most in the $3,000 range. For the most part, these fees seem not to include investment management, which would then be an additional cost. The trust company with the $8,000 minimum fee is undoubtedly trying to discourage smaller trusts from using its service.

Related Articles:

How Much are Trustee Fees for a Larger Trust?

What is the Tax Treatment of Trustee Fees?

When are Trustee Fees Paid?

Can a Neglectful Trustee be Denied his Fees?

Can a Trustee Use Trust Funds to Defend Herself?

What Should I do About a Trustee Who is Overcharging Me?

Showing 40 comments
  • Oliver Street
    Reply

    You forgot about the use of a “financial advisor” to generate large kickback fees. This is de-rigour now. The typical commercial trustee hires an FA who is not a broker and has no fiduciary duty under the law. The FA charges an asset based asset management commission plus costs, and holds the trust assets in an “account” on the FA’s books. That account is in fact a fractional value of an asset pool the FA holds. The asset pool is made of of fractions of brokerage accounts in the FA’s name. The brokerage holds the actual securities in street name, that is in the broker’s name. The FA passes through broker transaction fees, statement fees, etc. pro-forma using the broker’s published fee schedule as if the transactions had been undertaken separately for each asset pool participating in each asset account, and each trust participating in the asset pool. (Yes, a trust participating in an asset via two pools might be charged for a single transaction as if it were two smaller unrelated transactions) The FA passes through statement, accounting and reporting fees both from the broker(s) and the FA’s own pools. (The FA is not a fiduciary, the practice is not barred,)

    The FA’s combined fees are reported by the commercial trustee as “costs”. The commercial trustee also takes an asset based asset management fee.

    The FA also passes through to the commercial trustee the “order flow” credit for the financial transactions. The underlying truth is that the FA doesn’t pay transaction commissions, the FA is actually paid for the large “order flow”, which is actually a kickback for the broker holding the assets in street name, which permits the broker/dealer to sell short, buy long, write call/put options and construct other more complex derivative transactions using the underlying securities without taking any price risk in the security. (Subject to certain rules, substantially that the broker has balanced the positions and has capital to cover any loss potential from any unbalanced positions or price spreads).

    The Commercial trustee receives the order flow credit in the form of a reciprocal marketing agreement between the firms, not traceable to specific trusts, to obfuscate the inherent conflict with the trustee’s obligation to undivided loyalty.

    So the beneficiaries pay non-existent fees marked up twice, Statement fees at 3-5 levels, two layers of asset value fees, including one that does not manage the assets.

    The essential element of the current practice is the FA who has no fiduciary duty.

  • Harry Margolis
    Reply

    That’s an important issue and perhaps a question to ask any potential professional trustee: What are the total costs, including investment costs? Get the response in writing.

  • Pj Martini, Jr.
    Reply

    Mr. Margolis, I may become a trustee very soon, of a trust worth about $1million. I am not an investment guy, I’m the son and sole trustee of my father’’s trust. I need to have an advisor for managing the ‘investments’ of the trust and manage the trust expenses, dealings back and forth with the beneficiaries, which I am one of two. Do I look for a FA, or a firm like maybe Schwab, to do all of the management, etc? Or is there an entity that does this kind of ‘fiduciary’ work for a trustee, like me? Thank you for your guidance in advance.
    PJ Martini,

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Dear Mr. Martini,
      I believe you have two choices, either to hire a financial advisor as you suggest or to engage a professional co-trustee. Depending on where you live, this may be a bank trust department, a trust company, or a law firm. A professional trustee will likely be more expensive than an investment advisor, but would also provide more service. I’d check around for options near where you live, see what they have to offer at what price, and then choose the solution that feels most comfortable to you.

    • Kimberly Lawrence
      Reply

      As the trustee of my uncle’s estate I have to travel from Oregon to Washington to take care of the assets. I have tracked my mileage and my time spent traveling
      The beneficiaries do not want to pay me for my time spent traveling because I visit with my family when I am in Washington and they pay me for the mileage.

      • Harry Margolis
        Reply

        Kimberly,
        These can be tough issues that need a “reasonable” solution. On your side, you might say that sure, you also visit your family, but you would not make the trip for that purpose alone. Your duties as trustee are what compel the traveling. The beneficiaries, on the other hand, might argue that you don’t need to travel so much. Why not hire someone local to do what you’re traveling to do, especially in this time when everyone is doing more remotely? I think the best approach would be to determine what the most cost effective way to carry out your duties as trustee would be, whether that’s by you traveling and being paid for your time or you hiring someone else to do whatever brings you to Washington. If it’s cheaper to hire someone else, but you would still prefer to take on these duties yourself, then you should be paid what it would cost to hire someone local.

  • Jill S
    Reply

    Harry,
    On a irrevocable trust does the trustee have an option of deducting her income if in fact she is working from home?
    What percentage would correctly correspond to her work?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Jill,
      I need to know more. Are you saying that a house is in trust but you’re living and working there and want to treat part of the house expenses as business expenses? Or you’re doing your work as trustee from home, so you should be able to deduct a proportion of your house costs against your income as trustee? It sounds like you’re probably referring to the latter. In that case, yes it’s possible, but the IRS rules are very strict. You must have a home office dedicated primarily to this purpose and then you can measure the square footage of the office as a percentage of the entire square footage of the house. It doesn’t have to be an actual office. If you have a desk that you use primarily in your trustee role, you can measure the square footage the desk and perhaps your associated chair and file cabinet take and do the same calculation.
      Let me know if I misunderstood your question.

  • Gary Allen
    Reply

    Dealing with revocable living trust. Question? My in-law was notified by his grandfather also his legal father that he would be the trustee. Then soon died. Trust did not specify that my son-in-law could be paid a % annually for acting as a trustee. He also found his grandfather left everything approx $500,000 in assets, to his great grand son and daughter. They are both minors with no legal parents. My son -in law very knows the kids. Can he immediately resign as a trustee? Or can he charge a % to serve as a trustee to handle all the money etc for the kids?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Your son-in-law can either resign or serve as trustee and receive a reasonable fee. It’s not clear if the trust says who should take over as trustee if your son-in-law resigns or has a mechanism for appointing a new trustee. If not, your son needs to ask the appropriate local court to appoint a successor trustee. If, on the other hand, your son-in-law chooses to serve as trustee, he can charge a fee. While what’s reasonable can be in the eye of the beholder and depend on the circumstances, I think most people would find a 1% fee of $5,000 reasonable. This would be earned income,so your son-in-law would have to report it on his tax return and pay the appropriate taxes. It would also make sense for him to consult with an attorney, at least at first, to make sure that he understands all the duties and responsibilities of serving as trustee. Here’s a podcast that could get him started: The Duties of Trustees with Attorney Joseph Imbriani
      https://podcasts.adorilabs.com/show/e?eid=IvRxdwOaGHC6UC50

  • Mary E Petrucha
    Reply

    Does a trustee have to take the fee, even on a 150,000.00 trust…left for a SNT person to live on for the rest of life, plus pay all the bills

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      No, family member trustees usually don’t take fees. Professional trustees, on the other hand, rarely serve pro bono. However, they might agree to a reduced rate.

  • Meka Cromer
    Reply

    If the trustee is not following the trust,and is profiting from the trust by living on land that’s part of the trust and not paying into the trust while living on the land. The trustee is not fixing the home that is in the trust for the children to live in. It’s been 3 years and not one thing had been fixed for the children and I can get hack in our home. We are homeless, because the trustee doesn’t want to fix up the home. What can i do about this? Can I press criminal charges?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Dear Ms. Cromer,
      You probably can’t press criminal charges, but based on what you say you should be able to have the trustee removed and replaced by someone who follows out the obligations of trustee. I would take the trust to a local trusts and estates attorney and explain the circumstances.

  • Stacey B.
    Reply

    My brother is its administering my mothers estate which includes 500k in real estate and 400 in stocks left in trust. He’s claiming he can take a 3% fee on all, as an estate/trust executor. the house isn’t being sold because he is living in it. He has taken his time to complete the other paperwork/work. We are all still waiting for our distribution and its been 3 years.

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Dear Stacey,
      There is no hard and fast rule on an appropriate executor’s fee. A lot should go into the mix, including the amount of work involved, how complicated the estate is, and other estate expenses. Three years is a long time to administer an estate and costs always increase when estate take longer to administer. The fact that nothing has been distributed in three years, including the stock which shouldn’t be complicated, seems like evidence that your brother is not working efficiently and should receive a lesser rather than a greater fee. There’s also the issue of whether he should be paying rent for living in the house. While I’m sure you don’t want to spend good money after bad, you may need to hire counsel to make sure your rights are represented.

  • K Brophy
    Reply

    I am working with an estate planning attorney. I am 70, in good health, divorced, no kids/siblings, about 1.5M in current assets. I’m hesitant to ask a friend to administer my trust. After outstanding expenses, bequests of specific items and specific dollars to a few individuals, beneficiaries are residual percentages to various charities. I plan to manage my affairs as long as I am able. I believe I need to designate someone to manage the disbursement of assets upon death but also need to have someone in place to manage financial affairs if I am incapacitated. I’m not clear as to whether all of that can (or should) be handled by the same individual/firm and if that would best be an attorney, CPA, corporate trust firm, or other. And, given that I will manage disbursements from the trust while I’m able, would I need to pay an annual fee (which could be 12.5K at current fees) during that time?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      I do think a professional trustee makes the most sense, whether an attorney, accountant, bank or trust company. They could manage both your financial affairs during your life and distribute your remaining assets upon your death. As you suggest, it’s best that you choose the trustee now and appoint them as co-trustee with you. This comes with a cost, but it has a number of benefits. It would give you the opportunity to get to know the trustee and make sure they’re right for you. Assuming it is a good fit, they would know you better when the time comes to take over. In the meantime, they would provide professional investment assistance and could pay your bills whether all the time or if you were traveling for fell ill. While you may not need these services now, you can take advantage of them.

  • Bethany
    Reply

    I am trustee and executor of an irrevocable trust. My mother has passed away. There is a lot involved in getting her house ready to sell among other things. There are two other siblings who are not helping at all. As a matter a fact they are hindering everything I am doing because they are jealous that my mom made me executor (trustee) of her trust. The house will finally sell for $200,000.00. I was thinking about taking an executor fee for this horrific time in my life. What would be a standard charge for the fee? And do I have to get the fee approved by the courts in NH where it is an irrevocable trust? I do understand I have to claim that fee on my taxes

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Bethany,
      This is a difficult question to answer, in part because it sounds like your siblings won’t be agreeable. It doesn’t sound like you need to get get court approval since there’s not court involved. The figure that comes to mind for me given everything you’ve said is $10,000. It seems like a reasonable amount given what you describe. It probably doesn’t fully compensate you for the work you’ve done, but it’s not an amount your siblings should challenge. But I’d check with a New Hampshire attorney to be sure.

  • Jane
    Reply

    Please help- How can one trust that owns 3/4 (now beneficiaries of that trust) of a home remedy the costs, travel, labor and lost work time extended to prep, fix up , clear out and ready the house for sale? The other 1/4 Trust is still under a living Trust and those trustees are unable to input time and labor. What is the beneficiaries in the majority protocol for compensation? Would it be off the final $ sale of property before monies are distributed to the two NY Trusts? What can be submitted?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      This is always difficult because people don’t always agree on what needs to be done, who needs to do it, or how much they should be paid. If a trustee or beneficiary is to be compensated at the same rate as someone you hired, why not just hire someone to take care of the necessary tasks? Certainly a physician who takes time off to do the work should not be compensated at her normal hourly rate as a physician. On the other hand, if you hired someone else, you would still have to supervise and communicate with that person. The best approach is to discuss this with all the parties involved and come up with a solution that work as best as possible for everyone, or at least that they can accept.

  • Mike
    Reply

    My dad died a couple of years ago. Before he died we discussed how to leave some of his assets to my sister who has had a problem with spending money and not saving. I told him that he should leave her part in trust. He ask would I be the trustee. I said yes. He left me land and her money. While I was willing to do what needed to be done to take care of her trust to ensure she had money until she reached the age of 80, I never considered taking a fee for doing so. I have place her trust money with a financial advisor and it has done well. We set an amount for her to receive each month so that there would be approximately 1/4 to 1/3 left when she turns 80 in about 15 years. After that point she can spend at will.
    Since then she remodeled her house. It needed it badly. I set up the contractor, picked out her furniture, setup the home imporvement loan at the bank, etc. Now she hands her bills to me to pay also. I am taking on more duties now than when I agreed to handle the trust and I have my own business to run. I have thought about taking a fee since I am performing more duties but not sure what would be a reasonable fee. The trust is valued at about $500,000. I feel a little guilty about taking something since it is my sister but I am doing more and more things that she doesn’t want to do.
    Any advice would be appreciated.
    Thank you!

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Mike,
      It sounds like you’re providing your sister a great service. I think you have three options: First, you can continue to do what your doing for no fee. Second, you could find someone else to take on your role, either the entire role as trustee or some of your duties, such a paying bills. The cost would be a legitimate trust expense.
      Third, you could begin charging a fee. I don’t know what the financial advisor is charging, but I’d limit your combined fees to 1.5%. So, if the financial advisor is charging 1.0%, you could charge 0.5% or $2,500 a year. This may not totally compensate you for your time and effort, but at least it’s something. Remember, you’ll need to report this as taxable income.
      I hope this helps.

  • gary shartsis
    Reply

    My wife’s family trust said no fees
    The trustee is hell bent on taking a 18k dollar fees
    Is that appropriate ?
    Its a livening trust and both parents wrote it with
    an attorney

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      The trustee is entitled to a “reasonable” fee unless it agreed not to take one. What’s “reasonable” depends on a lot of factors, including the value of the property in the trust, the amount of work involved, the trustee’s experience, the amount of time the fee covers, how complex that work may be, and prevailing standards in your community. If you could provide more information about those considerations, I might have an opinion whether or not $18,000 is reasonable.

  • Terry Wagner
    Reply

    We have an Illinois trust and need it brought up to conform with Florida laws. What should we do and approximately amount should we expect to pay?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Terry,
      You will need to bring your trust to a Florida estate planning attorney to review. The cost may be relatively low, just what it costs for the attorney’s time to review the trust and advise you on whether she would recommend any changes. But implementing the changes, if any, could be more expensive.

  • Charles Burdsal
    Reply

    Harry, thanks for this blog. I have been managing my sister’s trust with POA for 2years now and for some reason only now looking at charging some kind of fee because other siblings are encouraging it. This column is invaluable and I am glad I have not experienced some of the more complex situations. I will paint a picture of this in case this is more than a great big thank you Harry letter and can be used for some education. I give in Kentucky and my sister lived in CA. My sister turned the trust over to me because she recognized she needed help and I was most trusted. She has 5 children with interest in the remainders, 4 living in Australia, 1 living in CA near (1hr drive) where Sis lived. Her house was in a condition that the health department pronounced unlivable so she was placed in an independent senior living center. Issues soon showed up to indicate she was not really able to care for herself – not taking her medications being primary – even without her needing to pay bills. She needed more oversight such that it was almost that some one needed to be living with her and it took a year and a half with a weeklong visit for me to know that. She doesn’t trust her son and his wife thinking they just want to get hands on her money. Meanwhile her home was eating money. Her son and friend helped tremendously to clear out the place and expose some major work to be done. We sold the house as is and still did very well for Sis. Late last year I moved her to an independent living situation Near me, thinking I could stop in often and make sure her clothes were getting washed but I was not able to look after her daily needs and did not know how much she needed that. Within 3 months she had two bouts of UTI which required 911 and some medication modifications to let aids and nurses to care for her. She spent about a month in psychiatric care. We then moved her into a memory care unit. Her care is more normalized now and I began to feel that it would be good to invest some of her approx 500K to help it stretch out should she live long. And of course to enhance the potential proceeds for her children. My bottom line is that, now as non recipient of proceeds at death and reading your column, I feel I will now claim a professional trustee fee. For the investments I have used her money to draw investment advice from trusted services. Primarily Motley Fool but others in addition that help corroborate those investments and in some cases build on stocks that are related. I have invested about 100K this year which is currently worth about 160K. I have spent about 9K on various services. Which is in excess of what a professional advisor would likely have charged, based on my reading your column today. But the gain of nearly 60K is also in excess of what the advisor would have garnered because I am being more aggressive without being foolish. My concern as I come to after all, is to protect myself from charges of mishandling money. What might be the best course of action for me to take going forward?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Charles,
      The story you describe is very typical of elder care. The elder needs unpredictably increasing care requiring a considerable time investment by the caregivers.
      Trustee fees are very difficult to determine in a family situation, but I think if you charged $5,000 a year going forward, about 1%, it would be difficult for anyone to object. I would let all the beneficiaries know, saying that you will begin doing so in 2021, perhaps with half payable mid-year and half at the end of each year. If they don’t object, it will be hard for them to object going forward. If they do object, try to work it out.
      Going back to be compensated for all the work you’ve already put in is much more difficult. It would be best to make a proposal to the beneficiaries and come to an agreement.
      I’m a bit concerned about your investments. They have worked out so far, but might not in a falling market. If that happened, the beneficiaries might claim that your approach is not appropriate for a trust account. On the other hand, it does sound like 80% of the trust is not at risk, so you could argue that overall your approach is not so aggressive.

  • John Campbell
    Reply

    Harry: Perhaps I missed it in here somewhere, but if the trustee if tasked with managing, and taking a fee for managing, all trust assets, what about an IRA which is part of a portfolio but not technically a trust asset? I’m still interfacing with the financial adviser about everything in the account, and still managing the rest of the assets. Should my 1 1/2% fee include the value of the IRA even though it’s not part of the trust?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      John,
      Only if there’s an agreement with the beneficiary or donor. As trustee you’re only legally responsible for the property in the trust. Anything else you take on is really a separate matter. If the IRA owner agrees to compensate you for that, that’s between you and him or her. If it’s ultimately integrated into the trustee fee, that’s okay, but strictly speaking it’s separate.

      • Dylan Hover
        Reply

        Hello Harry

        Recently my grandma passed away and left an estate worth around 700k. She made me her executor and personal representative. In fulfilling my duties I have had to travel out of state, take time off from work, completely renovate her home to get it ready for market, contact beneficiaries, negotiate with and pay collectors, deal with multiple uncomfortable meeting with beneficiaries, etc. I am trying to figure out what would be a “reasonable” compensation for my time and work. The other beneficiaries are fine with me being recompensed as well. Would either %1 or %2 of the estate be a “reasonable” compensation in my circumstances?

        • Harry Margolis
          Reply

          Dylan,
          That does sound like a reasonable range given the amount of work you had to carry out. If the other beneficiaries are comfortable with your receiving 2%, that should be fine. Remember, that you will have to report the compensation as taxable income.

  • Gio Ali
    Reply

    Hi Mr. Harry,
    Is there any limit on how long or how mush a trustee can charge fees?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      There’s no limit on how long a trustee charges fees since generally the trustee will continue to serve as long as the trust is in existence and deserves continuing compensation for the role. The fee must be “reasonable.” What that means depends on a lot of factors.

  • Marj Schrader
    Reply

    hello Harry, here is my situation, my mother has a trust my father set it up for his 4 sons, I was designated as the trustee, after my father passed my mother wants all 4 boys to have a vote on everything, how is this going to work? I have concerns my brothers and i do not get along, my mother is putting each of us in charge of an item to take care of, one to pay bills, one to be the property mananger and one to run the stocks, what would happen if the bill payer decided not to pay one of the brothers there monthly check? I feel i will be in court all the time, what do you think? thank you

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Marj,
      As I understand it, you’re the trustee, not your mother. While it would be nice to follow your mother’s wishes and could help relieve you of some work, you’re in charge, not her or your brothers.If one of your brothers does not follow through with his responsibilities, you can always step back in and take over that function. The other alternative is to resign and appoint an independent professional trustee. That might cost a bit more, but the expense could be well worth the savings in time and strife.

  • diane
    Reply

    I am a beneficiary of a Trust It’s being managed in a different state than where I live. They refuse to send someone to look at the house. My kitchen is a health hazard, and I have a heart issue. They do the minimum to take care of the house. Their name is on the the deed.
    It’s very difficult to get information from them. I did get a lawyer. They are also taking their time in getting info to him.

    I got a new account manger because the old one, wasn’t paying bills, per the agreement. I could not communicate with her.

    The trust company just keeps shifting me from person to person.

    What should I do?

    • Harry Margolis
      Reply

      Diane,
      You definitely have done the right thing to hire an attorney. The trustee has the responsibility to maintain any property owned by the trust and to communicate with beneficiaries. There can be a difference of opinion on what “maintenance” means and how much effort they must make to communicate with you, but the fact that they have not sent anyone to visit the house is telling. I think your lawyer may need to get more aggressive with them, perhaps bringing an action to remove them as trustee.
      Harry

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