A Faster Exit for Florida Trustees: What Broward Beneficiaries Should Know

Anyone who receives a stack of trust paperwork after a loved one’s death may now be looking at something new. On April 29, 2026, Florida’s governor approved House Bill 895, which created § 736.10081, Florida Statutes. The law gives trustees a nonjudicial way to settle their accounts and be discharged from liability. The Fort Lauderdale trustee duties lawyers at Edward J. Jennings, P.A. expect beneficiaries to have questions, and an attorney can help explain what a discharge notice means in a particular case.

How the New Process Works

The summary procedure is available for trusts that are irrevocable, or that become irrevocable on or after the effective date. The trustee must also be in substantial compliance with the duty to inform and account under § 736.0813. Before the change, a trustee seeking discharge generally relied on a waiver and release, written approval of a final accounting by the beneficiaries, or a court action.

Under the new route, the trustee sends a trust disclosure document to the qualified beneficiaries, any co-trustee, and the immediate successor trustee if the trust is not ending. That document includes:

• The trustee’s name, mailing address, phone number, and email address
• A plan of distribution, covering assets, debts, expenses, taxes, and any reserve
• An accounting for any earlier period not already accounted for, unless the duty to account was waived
• A notice that claims may be barred unless a written objection arrives within 60 days

The Sixty-Day Window

If a written objection reaches the trustee within the 60 days, the shortcut does not work, and the trustee returns to the older discharge methods. If no timely objection arrives, the trustee is generally discharged once the planned distributions are completed. In other words, silence can carry real consequences. The law was designed to save time and expense, and for many routine, cooperative trust administrations it may do exactly that. The tradeoff is that a beneficiary who wants to raise a concern has a limited period to put it in writing.

Points Beneficiaries Often Look At

Every situation is different, but beneficiaries frequently pay attention to:

• Whether the accounting seems complete
• Whether the distribution plan matches the trust document
• How large a reserve the trustee proposes to keep
• How and when the disclosure document arrived

Because the window is short, questions about the document, or about whether to object, are the kind an attorney can help sort out. Reading a trustee’s accounting closely takes time, and sixty days can pass faster than most families expect.

If a discharge notice is sitting on your desk, we at Edward J. Jennings, P.A. are happy to walk through it with you. Our Fort Lauderdale trust litigation attorneys are available by phone at 954-764-4330, so call to schedule a consultation before the sixty days slip away.

Sources:

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/895

https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2026/Chapter736/Part_X