Annual Trust Accounting Requirements in Virginia

At a glance

Requirements one by one

The beneficiary report has annual, termination, and vacancy triggers

Virginia Code § 64.2-775(C) says the trustee “shall send to the distributees or permissible distributees of trust income or principal, and to other qualified or nonqualified beneficiaries who request it, at least annually and at the termination of the trust” a financial report. The automatic annual recipients are therefore the current distribution class, not every qualified beneficiary. A qualified or nonqualified beneficiary outside that class becomes a report recipient by requesting one.

The same subsection adds a vacancy report. Unless a cotrustee remains, the former trustee sends that report to the qualified beneficiaries. A personal representative, conservator, or guardian may report for a trustee who is deceased or incapacitated. Any beneficiary may also request a copy of the trust instrument, and § 64.2-775(A) requires reasonable information about administration and material facts needed to protect beneficiary interests, subject to its good-faith reasonableness qualification.

Coverage turns on irrevocability and July 1, 2006

Section 64.2-775(E) makes the notice and report provisions applicable only to an irrevocable trust created on or after the chapter's effective date and to a revocable trust that becomes irrevocable on or after that date. Virginia Code § 64.2-808(A) identifies the effective date as July 1, 2006.

While a trust remains revocable, § 64.2-752 provides a different rule: beneficiary rights are subject to the settlor's control and the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor. A beneficiary should not treat the post-irrevocability annual-report rule as an independent current right while that provision applies.

The ordinary report has a concise statutory content list

Section 64.2-775(C) requires the report to show trust property, liabilities, receipts, and disbursements. It must include the source and amount of the trustee's compensation, list the trust assets, and state each asset's market value when feasible.

That list is narrower than a full probate-style schedule. The section does not itself make beginning carrying values, realized and unrealized gains, principal-income allocations, agent compensation, a trustee verification, or notarization mandatory parts of the ordinary beneficiary report.

Testamentary trustees have a separate court-accounting route

Virginia Code § 64.2-1306 generally requires a testamentary trustee to exhibit before the commissioner of accounts a statement of all money and other property received, chargeable, or disbursed for each calendar year. The first filing is due by May 1 of the year after initial funding, and each later calendar-year account is due by the following May 1. Older fiscal-year trustees and qualifying corporate or tax-fiscal- year trusts have the subsection B and C alternatives.

Virginia Code § 64.2-1311(A) adds vouchers for disbursements plus a terminal-date statement of cash and investments. Under § 64.2-1312(A), the commissioner states, settles, and reports the fiduciary's account to the circuit court. This filing route is separate from the § 64.2-775 report sent to beneficiaries, even though both duties may apply to the same testamentary trust.

Delivery and waiver depend on which route applies

For the ordinary beneficiary report, § 64.2-707 requires a method reasonably suitable under the circumstances and likely to result in receipt. It lists first-class mail, personal delivery, delivery to the person's last known residence or business, and a properly directed electronic message. A routine court filing is not substituted for sending the § 64.2-775 report to its statutory recipients.

A beneficiary may waive the § 64.2-775 report or other required information and later withdraw the waiver for future reports. Virginia Code § 64.2-703(A), (B)(10) also makes the reporting rule a default that trust terms may alter; the same section preserves statutory judicial- proceeding limitation periods from trust modification.

Testamentary court accounts use the more detailed § 64.2-1307(B), (D), (F)–(G) exceptions. A qualifying will waiver or a sole beneficiary who is also trustee can remove the routine filing duty. For a will waiver, the trustee must give the specified written notice within 90 days after qualification and provide an annual accounting on request. A covered adult beneficiary may demand in writing that annual commissioner settlements resume, and a circuit court may order annual filings when that is in a beneficiary's best interests. The section also supplies consent-based routes for qualifying wills and beneficiaries.

A report does not automatically settle every trustee act

Virginia Code § 64.2-796(A)–(C), (E) creates a one-year period to commence a breach-of-trust proceeding only when the sent report adequately discloses the potential claim and informs the beneficiary of the time allowed. If that rule does not apply, subsection C uses a five-year period measured from the first listed termination event. The one-year rule is a deadline to commence a proceeding, not a requirement to deliver a detailed written objection to the trustee.

Current § 64.2-800 supplies a separate deemed-release route when the trust terminates or the trustee ceases to serve. The trustee sends the beneficiary the immediately preceding two years of § 64.2-775(C) reports, remaining taxes, expenses, fees, and reserves, the statutory 60-day written-objection notice, and—on termination—the specified anticipated-property and distribution information. If the process is completed without an unresolved objection and the assets are distributed, subsection E gives the result the preclusive effect of a final court order for the recipient who consented or did not object.

That 60-day route is different from § 64.2-779(A), under which a properly warned beneficiary has 30 days to object to a proposed distribution. Interested persons may also approve a report or accounting through a valid nonjudicial settlement agreement under § 64.2-709(B)–(E), with optional court review.

Courts have a broad menu of remedies

Under § 64.2-792, a court may compel the trustee to perform or account, enjoin a breach, require money or property to be restored, appoint a special fiduciary, suspend or remove the trustee, reduce or deny compensation, trace property, or grant other appropriate relief. Virginia Code § 64.2-795 permits an award of costs, expenses, and reasonable attorney fees as justice and equity may require; the award is discretionary, not automatic.

What trips people up

“Qualified beneficiary” and “automatic annual recipient” are not synonyms. The automatic annual report goes to distributees and permissible distributees. Other qualified beneficiaries—and even nonqualified beneficiaries—receive it when they request it.

An ordinary report and a testamentary court account are separate documents. A testamentary trustee may have both the beneficiary-report duty in § 64.2-775 and the commissioner filing duty in § 64.2-1306. A waiver of one route should not be assumed to waive the other.

The three clocks have different jobs. Section 64.2-779's 30 days concerns a proposal for distribution. Section 64.2-800's 60 days concerns its detailed deemed- release process. Section 64.2-796's one year is a limitations period for commencing a proceeding after adequate disclosure and the required warning.

Sending an annual report alone does not discharge the trustee. Settlement or preclusion requires the conditions of § 64.2-796, § 64.2-800, a valid consent or release, a nonjudicial settlement, or a court process that actually applies.

Common questions

Does every Virginia beneficiary automatically receive the annual report?

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

May the trustee send the report by email?

Yes, if a properly directed electronic message is reasonably suitable under the circumstances and likely to result in receipt. Section 64.2-707 also lists first-class mail and personal or last-known-address delivery.

Must every trust asset receive a market value?

The report must list the assets, but § 64.2-775(C) requires their respective market values only “if feasible.”

Can a will waive a testamentary trustee's court accounts permanently?

Not necessarily. Section 64.2-1307 imposes notice and information conditions, allows specified beneficiaries or representatives to demand annual commissioner settlement, and permits the circuit court to order annual accounts in a beneficiary's best interests.

Statutes and sources

• Va. Code §§ 64.2-701, 64.2-703, 64.2-707, 64.2-709, 64.2-752, 64.2-775, 64.2-779, 64.2-792, 64.2-795, 64.2-796, 64.2-800, and 64.2-808. Current official Uniform Trust Code definitions, default rules, delivery, reporting, settlement, limitation, release, and remedy provisions. Official Code of Virginia chapter (accessed 2026-08-10).
• Va. Code §§ 64.2-1306, 64.2-1307, 64.2-1311, and 64.2-1312. Current official testamentary-trustee annual filing, waiver, voucher, and commissioner-report provisions. Official fiduciary-accounts chapter (accessed 2026-08-10).