A trust accounting is a statutory document, and it is tempting to treat it as nothing else — a schedule of receipts and disbursements, served because the statute requires service. Trustees who take that view are frequently surprised by the objections that follow.
The beneficiary receiving the accounting is rarely reading it as an accountant. They are reading it as a member of a family, looking for evidence of two things: that they have been treated fairly, and that they have been treated honestly. A schedule that answers neither question invites a lawyer to ask them.
The remedy costs very little. A short covering letter that explains the year in plain sentences — what was sold and why, why a distribution was larger or smaller than the last, what the trustee’s fee reflects — disposes of most objections before they are formed. Where a discretionary decision was close, say so. Where a valuation is an estimate, label it.
None of this waives anything or enlarges the trustee’s duty. It simply recognises that the limitation period which begins to run on service is worth having, and that it is far more likely to run undisturbed when the recipient understands what they have been sent.
