Arizona trustee report format

Content, not a form

For a trustee's report to beneficiaries, Arizona's statute sets the content rather than a form. Summafolio uses the uniform principal-and-income layout and checks it against the statute.

The trustee's report: A.R.S. §14-10813

Unless the trust instrument provides otherwise, a trustee keeps the qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed and responds promptly to requests for information (A.R.S. §14-10813). Subsection C requires a report at least annually and at termination to the distributees or permissible distributees of income or principal, and to other beneficiaries who ask. The report covers:

• the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements;
• the source and amount of the trustee's compensation; and
• a listing of the trust assets and, if feasible, their market values.

When a trusteeship becomes vacant and no cotrustee remains, the former trustee sends a report to the qualified beneficiaries. A personal representative, conservator or guardian may send one on behalf of a deceased or incapacitated trustee.

Subsection B adds notices: within 60 days after accepting a trusteeship, and within 60 days after learning that a trust has become irrevocable, the trustee notifies the qualified beneficiaries, including of the right to a trustee's report. Changes to the trustee's compensation need at least 30 days' advance notice. A beneficiary may waive reports and may later withdraw the waiver.

Note the limit in subsection F: a person isn't treated as a beneficiary entitled to a report solely because they were entitled to specific distributions that have already been made.

Principal and income

Arizona's principal-and-income rules begin at A.R.S. §14-7401, whose definitions (income, principal, net income, income interest and remainder beneficiary) match those of the 1997 Uniform Principal and Income Act. The schedules split receipts and disbursements between income and principal under those rules when the trust has separate income and remainder beneficiaries.

Conservatorships and estates

Conservators and personal representatives account in the superior court under their own statutes and the court's forms. For those matters, Summafolio produces supporting schedules and totals to transfer onto the court's forms. We haven't summarized those requirements here.

What Summafolio produces

A trustee's report in the uniform layout: a summary, then receipts, disbursements and distributions split by income and principal, gains and losses on sales, assets on hand with carrying and current values, liabilities, a separate compensation schedule for the trustee and agents, and a cash reconciliation to every statement.

Frequently asked questions

Does the report go to remainder beneficiaries?

It goes to current distributees and permissible distributees, and to other beneficiaries who request it.

Does the trust instrument control?

Section 14-10813 applies "unless the trust instrument provides otherwise", so read the instrument first.

Samples and next steps

• Guide: Principal and Income Act: Allocating Trust Receipts & ExpensesPlain-English explanation with citations.
• Free template: Trust accounting template (annual account)Blank PDF and Excel. A template, not a court form.
• PricingOne price per accounting, every export included.
• How it worksFrom statements to a reconciled accounting.
• All states and formatsCompare the 14 state formats and the uniform format.

Other states

• California
• Florida
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Illinois
• Ohio
• Georgia
• North Carolina
• Washington
• New Jersey
• Michigan
• Virginia
• Uniform format