Out-of-State Trustees

When you are selecting your trustees for your trust, you need to think about where they live. Even if you live in California, and all your assets are in California, you could subject your trust to the jurisdiction of another state if you die with a trustee who lives out of state. This is because most states look at the place where a trust is “administered” in deciding whether they can decide matters about that trust. If the out-of-state trustees live in Virginia, for example, your trustees may have to file any legal paperwork in Virginia even though the trust’s assets are in California. As usual, there are many variations of this question, and you have to evaluate this on a case-by-case basis.