What it means
When the settlor of a trust that was revocable at death (a trust described in §733.707(3)) dies, the trustee must file a notice of trust with the court in the county of the settlor's domicile. The notice states five things: the settlor's name, the date of death, the title of the trust (if any), the trust's date, and the trustee's name and address. The trust instrument itself is never filed.
The filing plugs the trust into the probate system: the clerk indexes it like a caveat, sends it into any open probate proceeding, and connects the trustee with caveators and the personal representative — because those trust assets stand behind the estate's expenses and enforceable claims when the probate estate runs short.
- Filing is mandatory — "the trustee must file" — upon the death of the settlor of a trust described in §733.707(3).
- Contents: settlor's name, date of death, trust title (if any), trust date, and the trustee's name and address — five facts, no terms, no numbers.
- Filed with the court of the county of the settlor's domicile; if a probate is open, it goes in that file and the personal representative gets a copy.
- The clerk indexes the notice like a caveat and cross-serves it with any caveat filed about the settlor.
- Proceedings affecting the estate's expenses or obligations before the notice is filed still bind the trustee.
- Skipping the filing changes nothing about the duty to pay estate expenses and claims under §733.607(2).
How it plays out
The notice of trust is the first document we file in nearly every administration that pairs a probate with a revocable trust. It takes minutes, satisfies a duty the statute states as "must," and — because the clerk routes caveats and probate filings to the trustee — it is how the trustee stays in the loop on what the estate is doing. Families worried about privacy can relax: the notice discloses five facts, and the trust instrument itself never becomes a court record.
Where this shows up
Pages on this site where § 736.05055 does real work:
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