Florida Statute 736.1008
“Limitations on proceedings against trustees”
What it means
Claims against a trustee for breach of trust run on layered clocks. The default: once a matter is adequately disclosed in a trust disclosure document, claims are barred as provided in chapter 95, running from receipt. The short clock: when the trustee also gives a limitation notice, a claim based on an adequately disclosed matter dies 6 months after receipt.
Without adequate disclosure, the claim accrues only on the beneficiary's actual knowledge or the trustee's repudiation. Outer limits still apply: 10 years after the trust ends or 20 years after the act — both assuming the beneficiary knew of the trust and their status throughout — or 40 years regardless, extended 30 years if the trustee actively concealed facts.
- Adequate disclosure plus a limitation notice cuts the window to 6 months from receipt — §736.1008(2).
- Adequately disclosed matters otherwise run under chapter 95 from the date of receipt of the disclosure.
- Undisclosed matters accrue only on actual knowledge, established by clear and convincing evidence, or on repudiation or adverse possession by the trustee.
- Never receiving a required accounting does not start any clock on the claim for the missing accounting itself.
- Repose: 10, 20, or 40 years depending on knowledge and event; active concealment adds 30 years.
- A 'trust disclosure document' adequately discloses a matter when it gives enough information that the beneficiary knows of a claim or reasonably should have inquired.
How it plays out
This section is why we tell trustees that a complete annual accounting with the statutory limitation notice is cheap insurance: it converts open-ended exposure into a 6-month window, matter by matter. For beneficiaries the lesson is the mirror image — an accounting is not paperwork to file away. If something in it looks wrong, the time to ask questions is measured in months, not years, and waiting for the next accounting can quietly close the door.
Questions people ask
