Short answer. Yes. After notice, the court may authorize the executor or administrator to deed such trust property to the person, or their executor or administrator, for whose use and benefit the deceased held it, and may order execution of the trust whether it was created by deed or by law.
What the law says
Where the deceased in his lifetime held real property in trust for another person, the court may, after notice given as required in the last preceding section, authorize the executor or administrator to deed such property to the person, or his executor or administrator, for whose use and benefit it was so held; and the court may order the execution of such trust, whether created by deed or by law.
Rule 89, Section 9 — When court may authorize conveyance of lands which deceased held in trust. Read the full provision →
Trust property isn't really estate property
Where the deceased held real property in trust for another person during their lifetime, that property was never truly the deceased's own to leave to heirs; it belongs, in substance, to whoever the trust was created for. The rule provides a mechanism for the estate to actually convey it to that rightful beneficiary rather than leaving it stuck in the estate as though it were an ordinary asset. This distinction matters because the property never becomes part of the deceased's own estate for purposes of the general debts and distribution the rest of the settlement proceeding governs.
Court authorization and notice still required
The conveyance is not automatic. After notice is given in the manner already required for the rule's other real estate transactions, the court may authorize the executor or administrator to deed the property to the person, or that person's own executor or administrator, for whose use and benefit it was held. This authorization requirement binds the administrator directly; conveying trust property without first obtaining the court's authorization exceeds the administrator's powers, and a deed executed that way is vulnerable to being set aside, since Rule 89 conditions the conveyance on both notice and court approval, not on the administrator's own judgment about what the trust requires.
Covers trusts created by deed or by law
The authority extends to executing the trust whether it was created by deed, meaning an express written instrument, or by law, meaning a trust the law itself imposes based on the circumstances, so the mechanism is not limited only to trusts that happen to be formally documented in writing beforehand. This does not, however, let the administrator simply declare a trust exists on their own say-so; whether the deceased actually held the property in trust, and for whom, is a factual question the court must be satisfied of before authorizing the conveyance, regardless of which of the two sources — deed or operation of law — the claimed trust rests on.
Related provisions
- Rule 89, Section 9 — When court may authorize conveyance of lands which deceased held in trust
- Rule 89, Section 1 — Order of sale of personalty