What it means
If the trust does not set the trustee's pay, the trustee is entitled to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances — Florida publishes no percentage schedule for trustees, unlike the personal-representative presumptions in §733.617. If the trust does state a fee, it controls, but the court may allow more or less when the duties turn out substantially different from those contemplated or the stated amount is unreasonably low or high. Other services rendered in the administration earn additional reasonable compensation.
Subsection (4) polices a conflict: an attorney who prepared the trust — or someone related to that attorney — is not entitled to trustee compensation unless related to the settlor or the settlor received specific disclosures before signing and executed a separate written acknowledgment.
- Trust silent → pay is what is reasonable under the circumstances; there is no statutory percentage for trustees.
- Trust names a fee → it controls, but the court may adjust it for substantially different duties or an amount unreasonably low or high.
- Other services to the administration earn additional reasonable compensation on top of the trustee fee.
- The attorney-drafter rule: the lawyer who prepared the trust (or a related person or firm colleague) serving as trustee gets no compensation absent pre-execution disclosures.
- The settlor's acknowledgment must be a separate signed writing; skipping it costs the fee but does not disqualify the trustee or invalidate the trust.
- The disclosure regime applies to appointments under instruments executed or amended by Florida residents on or after October 1, 2020.
How it plays out
Florida deliberately gives trustees no fee table, so "reasonable" is argued, not computed — the appellate courts measure it by the West Coast Hospital factors (capital managed, responsibility assumed, skill, results), not hours billed. We tell families two things: a professional trustee's published schedule is usually what "reasonable" looks like, and even a fee written into the trust can be adjusted when the job becomes a different job. Since October 2020, the drafting lawyer who wants to serve for pay needs the signed disclosure — we treat it as standard closing paperwork.
Where this shows up
Pages on this site where § 736.0708 does real work:
Questions people ask
