What a California Trustee Must Do

Probate Code section 16000 states the office in one sentence: on acceptance of the trust, the trustee has a duty to administer it according to the trust instrument and, except to the extent the instrument provides otherwise, according to the Trust Law. The document comes first. Everything else fills the silences it leaves. Section 16002 supplies the character of the job — a duty to administer the trust solely in the interest of the beneficiaries. Not mainly, not fairly, but solely, which is why a transaction can breach the duty even where the trustee paid a full price. Where there is more than one beneficiary, section 16003 adds a duty to deal impartially with them and to act impartially in investing and managing the property, taking into account the differing interests they hold. Impartial is not identical: a beneficiary entitled to income and a beneficiary waiting on the remainder want opposite things, and the trustee must weigh both rather than serve whichever is loudest.

Sources: Probate Code s.16000 - Duty to administer the trust according to the trust instrument · Probate Code s.16002 - Duty of loyalty to the beneficiaries · Probate Code s.16003 - Duty to deal impartially with beneficiaries · Verified 2026-09-01.

Section 16004 is the section that catches well-meaning trustees. It provides that the trustee has a duty not to use or deal with trust property for their own profit or for any purpose unconnected with the trust, and not to take part in any transaction in which they hold an interest adverse to a beneficiary. Buying the house from the trust at an appraised price is still the trustee on both sides of the deal. Subdivision (c) goes further: a transaction between trustee and beneficiary by which the trustee gains an advantage, made while the trustee’s influence remains, is presumed to violate fiduciary duty — a presumption affecting the burden of proof, so it is the trustee who must dislodge it. Alongside sit the custody duties: section 16006 requires reasonable steps to take and keep control of the property and preserve it, section 16009 requires it kept separate and designated as the trust’s, and section 16007 requires it made productive.

Sources: Probate Code s.16004 - Duty to avoid conflict of interest · Probate Code s.16006 - Duty to take control of and preserve trust property · Probate Code s.16007 - Duty to make trust property productive · Probate Code s.16009 - Duty to keep trust property separate and identified · Verified 2026-09-01.

Two different standards apply, and confusing them is a common and expensive mistake. For administration generally, section 16040 requires the reasonable care, skill and caution under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity would use — and the settlor may expand or restrict that standard expressly, with the trustee protected for good faith reliance on the wording. Section 16014 adds that the trustee must apply the full extent of their own skills, and holds one chosen for represented special skills to the standard those skills imply. Investment and management are carved out and governed instead by the prudent investor rule: section 16047 requires the trustee to invest and manage as a prudent investor would, and directs that each decision be evaluated not in isolation but in the context of the portfolio as a whole. On help, section 16012 forbids handing over the office, and requires supervision of anyone properly given a task.

Sources: Probate Code s.16040 - The prudent person standard of care · Probate Code s.16014 - Duty to apply the trustee’s full skills · Probate Code s.16047 - The prudent investor rule · Probate Code s.16012 - Duty not to delegate the office of trustee · Verified 2026-09-01.