Trustee Succession Provision

The trust needs a trustee at all times. A succession provision spells out who steps in next when the current trustee can no longer serve. It typically names two or three successors in order and describes how the role is filled if all named successors are unavailable.

Families include a trustee succession provision so the trust never has to go to court to find a trustee. Court appointment is slow, expensive, and removes family control over who serves. A clear succession ladder keeps the trust running through every transition.

Arizona's Trust Code under ARS § 14-10704 handles vacancies in the office of trustee. The statute lets the trust instrument name successors and lets the qualified beneficiaries appoint a trustee if the instrument is silent. Without those mechanisms, a court must appoint, which the statute also authorizes. The succession provision in the document is what keeps the trust out of court in the first place.

Documents that include a trustee succession provision typically contain language along these lines: "On my death, resignation, or incapacity, my spouse shall serve as successor trustee. If my spouse is unable or unwilling to serve, my children, [A] and [B], shall serve as co-trustees. If neither is able to serve, [Corporate Trustee] shall serve." Descriptive only.

• Named individual ladder. A short list of named successors in order.
• Family then corporate. Family members serve first, with a corporate trustee as the final backstop.
• Beneficiary-selected. The qualified beneficiaries may appoint a trustee if all named successors are unavailable.
• Trust protector appointment. A trust protector has the power to appoint a successor trustee.

The most common failure is a too-short list. Naming only one or two successors with no backstop leaves the trust scrambling if both are unavailable. A second failure is naming a person who is not realistically going to serve — a sibling in another state with a demanding career — without a fallback. A third pitfall is failing to coordinate the succession with any trust protector or co-trustee arrangements elsewhere in the document.