Years behind on an accounting? Here's what to do.
Maybe the prior trustee fell years behind. Maybe a parent passed and left records scattered across accounts and drawers. Either way it's now on you — and the court, a beneficiary, or the trust itself wants an accounting. The good news: this is normal, and it's fixable.
The short version
- Falling behind is the normal case. Multi-year, no-records accountings get reconstructed routinely.
- The risk isn't the mess — it's leaving it unexplained. That's where personal liability lives.
- Gaps are recoverable: a closed account, a year of missing statements, a bank that merged.
- Getting current means a court-format filing where total charges equal total credits, to the dollar.
Maybe the prior trustee fell years behind. Maybe a parent passed and left records scattered across accounts and drawers. Either way it's on you now, and the court, a beneficiary, or the trust itself wants an accounting. This is fixable — most accountings don't start as a tidy spreadsheet, they start as a box of statements and a few years no one kept up with. Inheriting a mess doesn't make you a bad trustee. It can be reconstructed.
Why an overdue accounting carries real risk
A trustee, executor, or conservator has a duty to account, and a missing or unsupported accounting is exactly where personal exposure shows up.
- If you can't explain where money went, a court can draw an adverse inference against you.
- A fiduciary can be surcharged — held personally responsible for amounts that can't be accounted for.
- The exposure tracks the gap, not the mess. An unexplained year is the problem, not a disorganized one.
Watch outSurcharge is personal money, not the trust's. Getting current in a format the court accepts is what takes that risk off the table.
What "getting current" actually involves
Reconstructing a delinquent accounting goes well beyond bookkeeping. Four steps:
- Gather the records. Pull every bank, brokerage, and credit-card statement for every account across every year in the period — and identify what's missing.
- Reconstruct the ledger. Turn thousands of raw transactions into a clean, categorized history that ties to the actual statement balances.
- Separate principal from income. A rules-based split under the Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act (UFIPA, in California and Florida) — the part generalists most often get wrong.
- Put it in court format. The schedules the court accepts, with total charges equal to total credits, to the dollar.
Missing documents are normal — and manageable
Almost every overdue matter has gaps:
- A closed account.
- A year of statements no one saved.
- A bank that merged.
These can usually be recovered or reconstructed; they just take work.
HintFind what's missing before you commit, and price the recovery up front — so a gap is a known line item, not a surprise on an hourly bill.
Common questions
How far behind is too far?
There's no point of no return. Multi-year, no-records, commingled accountings get reconstructed routinely. What grows over time is the risk of an unexplained gap — not the difficulty of rebuilding the record.
What is a surcharge?
A court holding a fiduciary personally responsible for amounts that can't be accounted for. If you can't show where money went, a court can draw an adverse inference. A court-accepted accounting is what answers it. More →
What if statements are missing?
Normal and recoverable — a closed account, a missing year, a bank that merged. Banks and brokerages can reissue historical statements, and the rest can be rebuilt from what exists. Gaps shouldn't stop you from starting.
How much does it cost?
We assess your records first and quote a flat fee before you commit a dollar — never a blind hourly quote.
This is precisely the work we specialize in: multi-year, no-records, commingled, overdue accountings reconstructed into a clean, court-ready filing. We assess your records first, quote a flat fee, and do the reconstruction fast — our technology does in hours what hourly work bills for weeks. When we're done, you have a filing your attorney can take to court, plus clean financial statements and the workpapers behind every number.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Deadlines and the consequences of missing them vary; confirm them with your attorney or the court.
Behind, and not sure where to start?
Bring us the mess. We'll tell you what we see and quote a fixed price before you commit a dollar.