My grandmother's trustee posted a bond, but the bond document itself doesn't spell out exactly what he's obligated to do — does that mean those duties aren't actually enforceable against him?

Automatic inclusion regardless of the document

The section states that these conditions are deemed to be a part of the bond whether written therein or not. An incomplete or sparsely worded bond document does not excuse the trustee from any of them. This matters because bonds are often drafted using generic forms that do not spell out every obligation a trustee owes, and a beneficiary or the court reading only the bond's text could otherwise be misled into thinking the trustee's duties are narrower than they actually are.

The four underlying duties

They cover: making and returning a true inventory of the estate at the court's direction; managing and disposing of the estate and faithfully discharging the trust according to law and the governing will or instrument; rendering a sworn accounting at least once a year until the trust is fulfilled, unless excused in a given year, plus any other accounting the court orders; and at the trust's end, settling accounts in court and delivering the remaining estate to those entitled to it.

An accommodation for successor trustees

Where the trustee succeeds a prior one, the court may dispense with making and returning an inventory if one has already been filed, and the bond's condition is deemed altered accordingly, avoiding duplicate work. This recognizes that a fresh inventory adds little value when the estate's contents were already recorded when the prior trustee took over, and it lets a successor step directly into the ongoing management and accounting duties without repeating a step that has already served its purpose.

Why this protects beneficiaries

Because these duties attach automatically, a beneficiary does not need to examine the bond's fine print to know what the trustee is obligated to do and account for; the obligations exist independently of how carefully the bond itself was drafted. It also gives a beneficiary a clear basis for holding the trustee accountable — if the trustee fails to inventory the estate, manage it faithfully, account annually, or settle and deliver it at the trust's end, that failure is a breach of the bond regardless of what the bond document happened to say.

Related provisions

• Rule 98, Section 6 — Conditions included in bond
• Rule 98, Section 5 — Trustee must file bond
• Rule 98, Section 7 — Appraisal; Compensation of trustee