Federal Court Orders Trustee To Provide An Accounting

A trust instrument required a successor trustee to render an accounting to each vested beneficiary. The plaintiff here requested an accounting from the successor trustee for an accounting, to which the trustee refused. 

In Drewy v. Keltz, “a federal court ordered the trustee to provide the plaintiffs with an accounting of his receipts and disbursements on behalf of the trust and a statement of the trust assets within 30 days of the order.” There are two further points of Illinois trust law that is important to consider. First, a beneficiary is only entitled  to a trust asset until after the death of the grantor and partner. However, because death is a certain event that will occur, beneficiaries who will eventually take from the trust still have a vested remainder in the trust. Second, it’s not clear about the court’s reasoning behind the timing listed in the order. The court ordered an accounting from the date of the grantor’s death to the present. It was not clear from the judge’s opinion whether Illinois does not require an accounting for time before the death of grantor or whether it limited the time to the term of the current successor trustee.

See Luke Lantta, Federal Court Orders Trustee To Provide A Trust Accounting, Bryan Cave Fiduciary Litigation, Apr. 10, 2013.