When is a trust (or estate) accounting required?

The duty to account: keep beneficiaries informed, on a schedule

Holding someone else's money carries an obligation to show what you did with it. A fiduciary has to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed and account for the property: what came in, what went out, what's left. That's a core duty, not optional paperwork, and it applies to an executor settling an estate just as it does to a trustee. The real question is rarely whether you owe an accounting. It's when one is due, and in what form.

Two rules frame every question that follows:

• The instrument wins; UFIPA is the default. A fiduciary administers to the text of the will or trust first. UFIPA supplies the allocation rules only where the document is silent or ambiguous — it doesn't override a settlor's clear intent.
• Beneficiary report vs. court filing are different forums. An ongoing trust usually accounts to the beneficiaries privately; a decedent's estate usually files with the probate court to close. Both can flip, so treat these as the typical path, not an absolute.

The triggers: five events put an accounting on the clock

In both California and Florida the same handful of events trigger the duty.

• Annual deadline — the baseline. Periodic accountings, not silence until someone complains.
• Termination of the trust — a final accounting before assets go out.
• Change of trustee — the departing trustee accounts for their watch.
• Beneficiary demand — a reasonable request from a beneficiary entitled to receive it.
• Court order — a court can compel one at any time.

California vs. Florida: the same triggers, different statutes

The triggers line up, but the citations and the labels for who's entitled differ. In California the duty runs to the beneficiaries broadly; in Florida it runs specifically to the qualified beneficiaries, and California pins the annual requirement in its own section (§16062) while Florida splits the duty and the format across two statutes (§736.0813 and §736.08135).

	California	Florida
Duty to inform & account	Probate Code §16060–16063	Fla. Stat. §736.0813
Annual / periodic accounting	§16062 (annual)	§736.0813 (annual trust accountings)
Content & form of the accounting	Court format: Probate Code §1061	§736.08135; court format: Fla. Prob. R. 5.346
Who is owed	Beneficiaries (per the instrument)	Qualified beneficiaries
Core triggers	Annual · termination · change of trustee · demand · court order	Annual · termination · change of trustee · demand · court order

The instrument can modify the timing in both states, so the document is the first read. (For the full statutory calendar — inventory, closing, the 1041, estate tax — see California & Florida probate deadlines.)

Which administration are you in? A scenario map

Your structure dictates the obligation — whether anything goes to a court, and which rulebook fills the numbers.

Administration	Court filing?	UFIPA applies?	The accounting basis
Intestate estate (no will, supervised)	Yes — court supervision from appointment to close	Yes — UFIPA governs a decedent's estate	No will means no instrument-supplied direction, so the administrator defaults to UFIPA's statutory rules — while still holding UFIPA's discretion, including the §16327 power to adjust.
Testate estate (will, supervised)	Yes — a will doesn't bypass the closing accounting	Yes — as the default behind the will	The executor follows the will's allocation directions; where it's silent, UFIPA's defaults apply.
Post-mortem trust (living trust becomes irrevocable at death)	No — administered privately; the account goes to the qualified beneficiaries	Yes — irrevocability ends the revocable-trust exemption	The instrument is the primary law; UFIPA fills the gaps. On the death that ends an income interest, the apportionment rules apply (CA §16370 et seq.; FL §§738.702–738.703).
Ongoing irrevocable trust (inter vivos or testamentary)	No — private unless a beneficiary petitions	Yes — applies to all express irrevocable trusts	Account to the current beneficiaries at least annually; test each transaction against the instrument first, then UFIPA.

The exemptions are narrow — and conditional

State codes suspend the regular accounting duty in only a few places, and each has a trapdoor.

• Revocable trust, settlor living. No duty to account to the remainder beneficiaries while the trust is revocable; the trustee answers only to the person holding the power to revoke (CA §16069(a)(1); §15800).
  • The incapacity shift — California-specific. Under AB 1079 (operative 1/1/2022), the duty shifts only when no person holding the power to revoke is competent — not automatically on the settlor's incapacity. It then runs to the people who would take if the settlor died as of that time; the trustee has 60 days after learning of the incompetency to act; and the instrument can modify or eliminate these rights (§15800(b); §16069(b)). Florida handles incapacity differently — don't assume the California mechanism travels.
• Sole trustee is the sole beneficiary. The law doesn't make you account to yourself. The duty is suspended until a successor takes over or a remainder interest becomes currently entitled (CA §16069(a)(2)).
• A valid waiver — with the limits below.

The triggering event sets the format and the deadline

Not every accounting looks alike, and the trigger tells you which one you owe.

• Informal accounting — sent directly to beneficiaries to satisfy the annual duty or a reasonable request.
• Court-format accounting — required inside a probate proceeding, with its own schedules and timeline (Cal. Probate Code §1061; Fla. Prob. R. 5.346).

Identify the event you're responding to and you know both the format and the deadline.

What the accounting must contain — including the UFIPA split

The trigger tells you when an accounting is due and in what form; it doesn't change what the accounting has to contain. A required accounting isn't just a list of transactions. It has to balance — total charges equal total credits, to the dollar — and it must allocate every receipt and disbursement between principal and income under UFIPA (California Probate Code §16320 et seq.; Florida Chapter 738). That split decides which beneficiary each dollar belongs to, and it's a built-in part of the statutory content (CA §16063; FL §736.08135) — so it rides inside every accounting you're required to render, not as an extra step you can skip. How principal vs. income works → · What is UFIPA? →

An accounting is also a limitations shield. A waiver narrows your reporting but not your liability; a presented accounting does the opposite. A written account that adequately discloses the facts converts an open-ended clock into a defined one — a three-year bar from receipt in California (§16460), which the trust instrument can shorten to as little as 180 days with the required statutory notice (§16461), or six months in Florida via a "trust disclosure document" and a "limitation notice" (Fla. Stat. §736.1008). That's the affirmative reason to produce one rather than dodge it. (A waiver isn't a release — an accounting starts the clock →)

If you're already behind: the duty stacks up, then gets fixed

Lapsed accountings don't expire. The obligation accumulates. A court can compel an accounting for every missing period, not just the current one, and an accounting that can't be supported by records is exactly where personal-liability and surcharge exposure shows up. Being behind is fixable: reconstruct the missing periods, get current, and let each required accounting stand on its own.

If you're behind on an accounting →  What is a trustee surcharge? →

Common questions

This is general information, not legal or tax advice; deadlines vary by court and by the trust instrument. Confirm specifics with your attorney.