Trust Administration for Paralegals

This course gives paralegals a practical guide to supporting trust administration, from a trustee's core fiduciary duties to modifying or terminating a trust. We'll cover the duties of loyalty, impartiality, and prudence, the trustee's powers to invest, manage, and distribute, and the limits on discretion. We'll then look at dealing with beneficiaries and the exercise of discretion, responsible management under the UPAIA and UPIA, working with co-trustees and delegating effectively, and inventorying and controlling trust assets, and finish with scheduling and reporting distributions, disbursing fees and expenses, and modifying or terminating trusts. You'll learn to support a trustee with a clear process: identify the duty that applies, keep assets and distributions documented, and know when a matter should go to the supervising attorney. Your guide is Sam Thomas III, founder of Sam Thomas III, Esquire & Associates, an attorney with 26 years of practice whose work now focuses on estate planning. Each module pairs video lessons with deep-dive and key-takeaway readings, downloadable handouts, a quiz, and a hands-on activity, and the course closes with a final assessment and an interactive role play.