Alabama: Annual Trust Accounting Requirements

Requirements one by one

Governing law and covered reports

Alabama uses a trustee's report rather than prescribing a separately titled
annual-account form. Section 19-3B-813(c) makes the report automatic at least
annually for distributees and permissible distributees; another qualified or
nonqualified beneficiary joins the recipient group by requesting it. The trust
terms generally control over this default rule under § 19-3B-105(a)-(b)(8), but
they cannot eliminate the separate duty to respond to a qualified beneficiary's
reasonable request for administration information about an irrevocable trust.

While a trust is revocable, § 19-3B-603(a) places beneficiary rights under the
settlor's control and makes the trustee's duties exclusive to the settlor. The
January 1, 2007 boundary in § 19-3B-813(e) applies by its terms only to the
acceptance and irrevocability notices in subsections (b)(2) and (b)(3), not to
the financial reports in subsection (c).

Recipients, timing, and contents

The annual recipient list is unusually broad. Section 19-3B-813(c) includes
both qualified and nonqualified beneficiaries who request a report, in addition
to the automatic distributee and permissible-distributee group. A qualified
beneficiary also has a prompt information right unless responding would be
unreasonable, and any beneficiary may request the trust instrument.

At termination, the final report must begin with the date of the most recent
annual report and continue through the trust's last transaction. After a vacancy,
the former trustee reports to qualified beneficiaries if no cotrustee remains.
A personal representative, conservator, or guardian may perform that task for a
deceased or incapacitated trustee.

The required financial core is stated directly in § 19-3B-813(c):

“a report of the trust property, liabilities, receipts, and disbursements,
including the source and amount of the trustee’s compensation, a listing of
the trust assets and, if feasible, their respective market values”

The feasibility qualifier applies to market values. The statute does not add a
carrying-value column, principal-and-income allocation schedules, agent-fee
schedules, a reconciliation, or a final distribution plan.

Delivery, waiver, and modification

Section 19-3B-109(a) uses a functional delivery standard: the method must be
reasonably suitable and likely to result in receipt. It lists first-class mail,
personal delivery, the person's last-known residence or business, a properly
directed electronic message, and methods under the Alabama Rules of Civil
Procedure. It excuses transmission when identity or location is unknown and not
reasonably ascertainable. Neither § 19-3B-109 nor § 19-3B-813 requires routine
court filing, certified mail, a signature, an oath, notarization, or a separate
proof-of-service form for the beneficiary report.

Any beneficiary may waive a report or other information under
§ 19-3B-813(d), then withdraw the waiver for future reports and information.
Section 19-3B-109(c) separately allows the intended recipient to waive notice or
transmission. A trust term can alter the default subsection (c) reports; the
qualified-beneficiary irrevocable-trust request duty in § 19-3B-813(a)(2) is the
reporting-related mandatory rule preserved by § 19-3B-105(b)(8).

Claim periods, settlement, and enforcement

An accounting does not need special warning text to start § 19-3B-1005(a)'s
two-year period. The statute defines a report as an account statement or other
written trustee disclosure and asks whether it gave enough information that the
beneficiary knew of the potential claim or should have inquired. If that route
does not apply, subsection (c) supplies another two-year period measured from
the first listed ending event.

Interested persons may use § 19-3B-111 to approve a trustee's report or
accounting, resolve trustee liability, or make a partial or final settlement,
provided the agreement meets that section's material-purpose and permissible-
terms limits. A consent, release, or ratification is subject to
§ 19-3B-1009's improper-conduct and actual-knowledge exceptions.

For breach, § 19-3B-1001 lets a court compel performance or an account, stop or
redress a breach, appoint a special fiduciary, suspend or remove the trustee,
reduce or deny compensation, trace or recover property, or grant other
appropriate relief. Section 19-3B-1004 is reserved, so that numbered provision
supplies no separate costs or attorney-fee rule.

What trips people up

Do not apply subsection (e)'s January 1, 2007 date to the annual and final
reports. Its text names only the two initial-notice paragraphs. Also keep the
two limitation routes separate: an adequately disclosing written report can
start a two-year clock, but the residual period is now two years as well. The
current text does not require a limitations warning in the report.

Common questions

Does every beneficiary automatically receive the annual report?

No. Distributees and permissible distributees are automatic recipients. Other
qualified or nonqualified beneficiaries receive it if they request it.

Can the report use electronic delivery?

Yes, a properly directed electronic message is one permissible method under
§ 19-3B-109(a), provided the method is reasonably suitable and likely to result
in receipt.

Must the trustee obtain beneficiary signatures or notarize the report?

Sections 19-3B-109 and 19-3B-813 impose neither formality for the report. A
separate settlement or release raises its own validity questions and should not
be treated as part of the statutory annual-report form.

Does sending any account statement end breach claims in two years?

Not automatically. Section 19-3B-1005 requires adequate disclosure: enough
information that the beneficiary knows of the potential claim or should have
inquired into it.

Statutes and sources

• Ala. Code § 19-3B-105(a)-(b)(8) — trust terms generally prevail, but the
  qualified-beneficiary irrevocable-trust request duty is mandatory. Official
  Alabama Code endpoint
  (accessed 2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-109 — suitable delivery methods, unknown-recipient
  exception, waiver, and judicial-notice route. Official Alabama Code
  endpoint (accessed
  2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-111(b)-(e) — nonjudicial approval of reports,
  accountings, liability, and partial or final settlements. Official Alabama
  Code endpoint (accessed
  2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-603 — revocable-settlor control. Official Alabama Code
  endpoint (accessed
  2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-813 — information rights, recipients, timing, contents,
  final period, vacancy report, waiver, and limited initial-notice date rule.
  Official Alabama Code endpoint
  (accessed 2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-1001 — remedies for breach, including an ordered
  accounting. Official Alabama Code endpoint
  (accessed 2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-1004 — reserved. Official Alabama Code endpoint
  (accessed 2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-1005 — two-year adequate-disclosure and residual claim
  periods. Official Alabama Code endpoint
  (accessed 2026-08-10).
• Ala. Code § 19-3B-1009 — limits on consent, release, and ratification.
  Official Alabama Code endpoint
  (accessed 2026-08-10).