You were named successor trustee. The bank wants paperwork, the beneficiaries want answers, and nobody handed you instructions. We guide DuPage County trustees through every step of administering a trust after the grantor dies, from the first required notice to the final distribution.
Serving DuPage County families since 1990 · Villa Park office · Free consultation · Illinois Trust Code, section by section
A trust administration attorney in Illinois represents the trustee, not the person who set up the trust. When the grantor of a revocable living trust dies, the trust becomes irrevocable and the successor trustee steps into a job with real legal duties: notify the beneficiaries, gather and protect the assets, pay what the trust owes, account for every dollar, and distribute what is left exactly as the document says. Chris J. Aiello, P.C. has represented trustees and beneficiaries across DuPage County since 1990.
This page is about administering a trust that already exists. If you are deciding whether to create a living trust, or you want one drafted and funded, that is a planning question and it lives on our living trust planning page. If the trust was never funded, the assets left outside it will need a probate case, and our probate and estate administration team handles that side under the same roof.
Related reading: How a living trust works in Illinois · How to avoid probate in Illinois
A funded trust keeps the estate out of the DuPage County courthouse. It does not keep the trustee out of trouble. These are the situations that bring trustees and beneficiaries to us.
The trust names you, the grantor has died, and you have never done this before. The Illinois Trust Code gives you 90 days to send required notices and a standard of care you are personally accountable for.
Banks and brokerages want a death certificate, proof you are the acting trustee, and usually a certification of trust rather than the whole document. We prepare the certification under 760 ILCS 3/1013 and deal with the institution so accounts get retitled instead of frozen.
Qualified beneficiaries have a right to know the trust exists and to request a copy of it. Handling those requests correctly, and on time, is what keeps a normal administration from turning into a dispute.
A house held in trust is sold or deeded by the trustee, not through a probate sale. We handle the trustee’s deed, the title company’s requirements, and the recording with the DuPage County Recorder as part of the same engagement.
An account or a deed that was never retitled into the trust is not governed by it. Those assets need a probate estate, sometimes a small one. We tell you which is which before anyone signs anything.
Most friction is about information and timing, and a clear accounting usually resolves it. When it does not, we say so early.
Trust administration in Illinois has run under 760 ILCS 3 since 2020. Ask what the trustee has to send within 90 days, and to whom. If the answer is vague, keep looking.
Most DuPage trusts hold a house. A firm that has to refer the deed and closing out to someone else adds cost and delay. We have closed residential real estate in DuPage County for decades.
A trustee is spending the beneficiaries’ money. You should know whether the engagement is flat or hourly, and what it covers, before you say yes.
A properly administered trust rarely sees the DuPage Judicial Center in Wheaton. When one does, for a trust contest or a trustee removal petition, you want counsel who already practices there.
Some trusts are small, fully funded, and have one beneficiary. An honest attorney will say when an hour of guidance is enough and a full engagement is not.
We would rather set expectations here than in a difficult conversation later.
We confirm the trust is now irrevocable, confirm who the qualified beneficiaries are, and send the notices the Illinois Trust Code requires within 90 days of the trustee’s acceptance (760 ILCS 3/813.1): that the trust exists, that beneficiaries may request a copy of the instrument, and whether they will receive accountings.
The trustee must take control of and protect the trust property, and keep it separate from their own (760 ILCS 3/809 and 3/810). We build the inventory, retitle accounts to the successor trustee, handle any trust-owned real estate, and identify anything that was left outside the trust so it can be handled correctly.
Debts, final expenses and taxes are paid from the trust. Current beneficiaries and presumptive remainder beneficiaries are entitled to a trust accounting at least once a year, and a final accounting when the trust terminates (760 ILCS 3/813.1). A matter fully disclosed in an accounting is protected after 2 years (760 ILCS 3/1005).
When the contest period has run and the reserve is set, the trustee distributes according to the instrument. Under 760 ILCS 3/817 the trustee may ask each beneficiary to approve the accounting in writing and sign a refunding agreement, and may hold back a reasonable reserve for debts, expenses and taxes until then. We prepare those documents, close the trust account, and give you a complete file to keep for the 7 years the Code requires.
We quote trust administration after the free consultation, once we have seen the instrument and know what the trust holds. Where the scope is defined, meaning a funded trust, cooperative beneficiaries and a known set of assets, we quote a flat fee for the administration, and a separate flat fee for any trust-owned real estate closing, the same way we quote residential closings. Where the scope is open, for example a partly funded trust, beneficiaries who dispute the accounting, or a trustee who needs ongoing advice through a long administration, the work is billed hourly.
For a straightforward administration, meaning a funded trust, cooperative beneficiaries and a known set of assets, that flat fee typically falls between $2,500 and $5,000, with any trust-owned real estate closing quoted separately. Administrations that are partly funded, contested, or run long sit above that range, and we tell you that before you engage us rather than after.
Reasonable attorney fees are an expense of the trust, paid from trust assets rather than by the trustee personally, and they appear on the accounting the beneficiaries receive. That is one more reason we put the fee structure in writing before we start.
Chris J. Aiello, P.C. is a Villa Park, Illinois law firm founded in 1990. Attorneys Chris J. Aiello and John Pizinger have spent their careers in estate planning, probate and real estate for DuPage County families, which means the lawyer who drafts trusts is the same lawyer who administers them, and the lawyer who administers them has closed the real estate inside them. You work directly with an attorney, not a case manager.
From our Villa Park office we represent trustees and beneficiaries throughout DuPage County and the western suburbs, including Elmhurst, Lombard, Wheaton, Oak Brook, Downers Grove, Addison and Oak Park, and we appear in the 18th Judicial Circuit at the DuPage Judicial Center in Wheaton when a trust matter requires it.
Illinois does not require it, and a very small, fully funded trust with a single beneficiary may not need one. Most trustees hire counsel because the Illinois Trust Code imposes personal duties with deadlines, because banks and title companies have their own requirements, and because an accounting mistake is the trustee’s liability, not the beneficiaries’.
A simple funded trust can be settled in a few months. Most take the better part of a year or longer, because a prudent trustee waits for the trust contest window in 760 ILCS 3/604 to close and for final tax returns to be filed before making final distributions. Real estate that has to be sold, or a beneficiary who disputes the accounting, adds time.
Locate the trust instrument, obtain death certificates, and calendar the 90-day notice deadline under 760 ILCS 3/813.1. Then secure the assets and open a trust account under the trust’s own tax identification number. Do not distribute anything, and do not pay yourself, until the inventory and the debts are known.
A certification of trust under 760 ILCS 3/1013 is a short signed statement that the trust exists, who the current trustee is, what powers the trustee has, and how title is held. It lets the trustee prove authority without handing an institution the full document and its private terms. Most banks and title companies accept it in place of the instrument.
Yes to both. A trustee is entitled to reasonable compensation unless the instrument says otherwise, and attorney fees for administering the trust are an expense of the trust. Both appear on the accounting, and both can be challenged if unreasonable, which is why we document them.
Assets still titled in the deceased person’s own name are not controlled by the trust. Depending on their value and type, they pass by small estate affidavit, if they are personal property under the statutory limit, or through a probate estate in the DuPage County court. We handle both the trust and the estate.
A free consultation covers what the trust holds, who has to be notified and when, and what the administration will cost. No obligation.