Trustee Notice to Beneficiaries Requirements in Washington

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Washington starts one clock when the trustee accepts

RCW 11.98.072(2)(a) requires the trustee to give qualified beneficiaries notice within 60 days after accepting the position. RCW 11.98.017 defines acceptance through the trust's stated method or, when that method is absent or nonexclusive, through delivery of trust property, exercising trustee powers or duties, or another indication of acceptance.

The statute does not create a second deadline when the trust is created as irrevocable or when a formerly revocable trust becomes irrevocable. Irrevocability instead appears in subsection (2)(b)'s coverage rule: the acceptance notice applies only to an irrevocable trust created after December 31, 2011 or a revocable trust that becomes irrevocable after that date.

The notice has four required disclosures

The notice states the existence of the trust and identifies the trustor or trustors. It also gives the trustee's name, address, and telephone number and states the notified person's right to request information reasonably necessary to enforce rights under the trust.

The statute does not require the trust date, taxpayer identification number, governing law, reason for irrevocability, trust instrument, asset inventory, death certificate, accounting, or contest warning in this initial notice.

Qualified beneficiary uses three distribution horizons

RCW 11.98.002 includes a current permissible distributee, a person who would become a permissible distributee if current interests ended, and a person who would become a permissible distributee if the trust terminated on the determination date.

That definition does not include every contingent beneficiary merely because the interest might eventually vest. It asks whether the person fits one of the three statutory distribution horizons on the determination date.

The trustor can change or remove the notice

RCW 11.98.072(5) allows the trustor to waive or modify the notification requirements of subsections (2) and (3). The change may appear in the trust document or in a separate writing made at any time and delivered to the trustee.

The section does not separately authorize a beneficiary waiver of this initial notice. It also does not prescribe a written-notice form or ordinary delivery method. RCW 11.96A.110's personal-service, mail, consented-electronic-delivery, and proof rules say on their face that they govern judicial proceedings, so they should not be imported into the nonjudicial § 11.98.072 notice.

What trips people up

• Irrevocability is a coverage fact, not a second clock. A covered successor trustee still measures the statutory period from accepting the position.
• The family limitation is conditional. Under § 11.98.072(3), information may be limited to a capable spouse or domestic partner only when that person is the sole permissible distributee and every other qualified beneficiary is a descendant of the trustor and that spouse or partner.
• A living revocable trustor is the only information recipient. Section 11.98.072(4) excludes every other beneficiary while the trustor of a revocable trust is living.
• Judicial service formalities do not attach automatically. The initial notice statute requires no certified mail, process server, proof-of-service declaration, oath, signature, or notarization.
• The initial notice does not become an annual accounting. Ongoing information and accounting duties are separate from the four items required by subsection (2)(a).

Common questions

Must the trustee provide the complete trust instrument with the notice?

No. The initial notice states the right to request information reasonably necessary to enforce trust rights. Under § 11.98.072(1), providing the entire trust instrument is a way to satisfy a qualified beneficiary's request for reasonably necessary information about the trust's terms; subsection (2) does not require it as an enclosure.

Does the initial notice have to be written?

Section 11.98.072 says the trustee must “give notice” but does not prescribe a writing, signature, delivery method, or proof form. A trustor's separate waiver or modification, by contrast, must be in a writing delivered to the trustee.

Can a representative receive notice for a beneficiary?

RCW 11.96A.120 says notice to a person who may represent and bind another has the same effect as direct notice. Its guardian, agent, parent, substantially-identical-interest, and other routes are limited by authority and the absence of a conflict concerning the particular question or dispute.

Can a beneficiary recover fees for forcing disclosure?

For the ongoing information duty, § 11.98.072(1) allows a court to award costs, including reasonable attorney fees under RCW 11.96A.150, when a qualified beneficiary must compel production by court order. The statute does not state a separate automatic penalty merely for a late subsection (2) acceptance notice.

Statutes and sources

• RCW 11.98.002(1)-(2) — permissible-distributee and qualified-beneficiary definitions. Official Revised Code of Washington (accessed 2026-07-31).
• RCW 11.98.009 — chapter coverage and excluded trust types. Official Revised Code of Washington (accessed 2026-07-31).
• RCW 11.98.017(1) — acceptance of the trusteeship. Official Revised Code of Washington (accessed 2026-07-31).
• RCW 11.98.072(1)-(5) — ongoing information duty, initial acceptance notice, contents, coverage date, family limitation, revocable-trustor rule, and trustor waiver or modification. Official Revised Code of Washington (accessed 2026-07-31).
• RCW 11.96A.110(1)-(2) — service and proof rules limited to judicial proceedings. Official Revised Code of Washington (accessed 2026-07-31).
• RCW 11.96A.120(1), (4)-(5) — legal and virtual representation for notice, subject to authority and conflict limits. Official Revised Code of Washington (accessed 2026-07-31).