I am the Trustee of a Trust or Personal Representative of an Estate – What Are My Responsibilities and Obligations?

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            When someone becomes incapacitated or passes away, you may find yourself in charge of administering a trust, or the decedent’s estate.  You may have been nominated as successor trustee through a Trust, the personal representative (executor) through a Will, or the court may have appointed you to administer the estate.  Here are a few important things to remember:

            Personal Representative:  As the personal representative of an estate, you will be responsible to collect the property owned by the decedent, notify creditors and heirs or devisees, pay debts and taxes, finalize the decedent’s business affairs, file all documents required by the court and governmental agencies, transfer decedent’s property, and close the estate or probate when everything is complete. 

Once the court has appointed you as the Personal Representative, you can act on your own without the approval of the court; however, you will need to keep the court informed of progress by filing all required documents.  If an interested person thinks you are not doing a good job, that person can petition the court to remove you as the Personal Representative or ask the court to supervise your administration of the estate.  Supervised administration involves the highest level of court oversight and is usually granted only when there are serious concerns about your actions as Personal Representative.

Trustee:  As the Trustee of a Trust, you must keep trust assets separate from your own personal assets, treat beneficiaries equally unless the trust directs otherwise, keep accurate records, file tax returns, and report to beneficiaries as required by the trust and the law.  You must know the terms of the trust, where assets are held, and when distributions can be made.  Trust assets should be invested in a prudent manner that will effect reasonable growth with minimum risk.  It is important to remember the assets of the Trust are not your assets and you cannot use trust assets for your own benefit unless the trust authorizes you to do so. 

If you are the Trustee due to the Grantor (or Trustor’s) incapacity, you must also make sure the Grantor is provided for, understand insurance benefits and limitations, apply for disability benefits, notify banks and other financial institutions or advisors, pay bills, and keep accurate records and accounting. 

            Administering the terms of the trust and meeting obligations while maintaining proper reporting can be overwhelming.  You do not have to accomplish this on your own.  You should   retain an experienced attorney to help you through the administrative process.  An important thing to remember whether you are serving as Trustee or Personal Representative is that you have a duty to the creditors and beneficiaries.  If you breach your duty, you could be held personally accountable for the breach which is why it is important that you retain counsel to assist you with the administration process.

Robert Jensen and Thomas Bayles, Attorneys at Law

JensenBayles, LLP provides a broad spectrum of legal services.  Thomas J. Bayles has been actively providing advice in the areas of trusts, wills, probate and tax planning in the St. George area for over 15 years. Please visit our web site www.jensenbayles.com or call 435-674-9718 and ask for Thomas J. Bayles or Phillip G. Gubler. The information in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as legal advice

Hawkins Announces Retirement of Firm Partner Kevin L. Simister

October 17, 2016

Orem, UT -- Kevin Simister, trusted advisor, leader, mentor, and friend, is retiring from Hawkins Advisors after 42 tax seasons.  Kevin plans to travel, spend time with family, not work on April 15, and perfect his woodworking skills (which are already pretty much perfect!).

Kevin joined Hawkins in 1975.  He practiced in all areas of the firm including audit, accounting, and tax.  His expertise and focus for many years has been helping clients in business entity structuring, estate planning, tax reduction strategies, compensation agreements, negotiations, expert witness, and valuations.  He served as the managing partner for 10 years.  His leadership was instrumental in the growth of the firm during a time period of significant change.  Kevin was responsible for bringing desktop computers into the office, our first network, first website, and coined MyCPA.com.  He was instrumental in creating our Retirement Department.   Kevin has been a developer of people.  During his time at Hawkins, we have grown from 10 to more than 75 employees.  He has trained and mentored staff and clients, teaching them how to become trusted advisors, successful business people, and leaders in their business and community. He believes a leader must have genuine affection for each member of the team.

Kevin has always enjoyed serving and helping people.  As Captain of an Emergency Medical Team for Pleasant Grove City, he responded to over 1,500 medical emergencies during his 12 years of volunteer service.  He has served in many professional advisory board positions including the President of the Utah Association of Certified Public Accountants(UACPA), Executive Board of the Provo Orem Chamber of Commerce, Governing Council of the American Institute of Public Accountants, Chaired the Utah Valley University Business Faculty Development Committee, and the Executive Board of the Purpose Investors Network.  He was recognized by the UACPA as the Outstanding CPA in Public Accounting in 2007.

During Kevin’s years of practice he has been a truly exceptional and respected advisor.  He has served his clients as a trusted advisor.  He protects them from unpleasant surprises through planning and implementation.  Kevin will say he doesn’t work with any businesses, just the people in the business.  His success has been through serving the people that are involved in the business and keeping it personal.  His secret sauce is his understanding and knowing the client, beyond the finances.  He can tell you the client’s family members, special medical or education needs, talents, and what they like to do for fun.  He will say he doesn’t have clients, but he sure has a lot of friends he works with.

We wish our friend, mentor, colleague, and soon to be retired partner many years of health and happiness in his retirement.

About Hawkins

Hawkins mission is to create the most client-centric accounting practice in the world and make outsourced accounting feel like an in-house function through integrity, service, knowledge, balance and showing appreciation for clients and associates.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Tammy Gnieting, Office Manager  801.224.1900  TammyG@mycpa.com

Cochlear Implant: When Hearing Aids Are No Longer Enough

As Doctors of Audiology we are always looking for ways to improve quality of life through better hearing; which may include: hearing instruments, implantable devices, and long term care and follow up.  While hearing instruments are the solution to treat most types of hearing loss, implantable devices such as cochlear implants may be an option for those patients who continue to struggle understanding conversations with traditional amplification.

 A cochlear implant is one type of an implantable device that replaces the function of the inner ear in order to provide sound signals to the brain. A person has a hearing test and hearing aid trial in order to determine candidacy for the cochlear implant. Many people with cochlear implants may report that they can focus better in noisy environments and hear sounds that they could not hear with their hearing aids. The cochlear implant is designed to help you hear better in all settings. Benefits of a cochlear implant vary from person to person. These differences of benefits are often due to: duration and severity of hearing loss, other medical conditions, and practice of listening with the cochlear implant. If you feel that you are still missing sounds even with your hearing instruments, then a cochlear implant may be a solution for you.

If you are interested in learning more about the cochlear implant, please join us for our Hearing Health Seminar to learn if a cochlear implant is right for you. The seminar will be held Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 5:00-7:00 pm at the Hilton Garden Inn located at 1731 S. Convention Center Drive, St. George, UT 84790. You may register for the seminar at HearingHealthSeminar.com or by calling 1-877-432-7844. We look forward to seeing you at the seminar. 

 About Dr. Garcia

Dr. Brittany Garcia, Au.D, serves patients of all ages, speaks Spanish, and brings her in-depth experience working with pediatric patients and those with cochlear implants to the Advanced Hearing & Balance Specialists practice. Dr. Garcia earned her undergraduate and Doctorate of Audiology degrees from Utah State University. She completed her internship at Mercy Audiology and ENT in Springfield, Miss. While earning her doctorate degree, she participated in the Listening and Spoken Language program, which provided specialized training for children with hearing loss and language development disorders. Dr. Garcia grew up in Magna, Utah, and recently moved to St. George. She and her husband enjoy being outdoors and are excited to enjoy all that southern Utah has to offer. She looks forward to serving those in the St. George community and meeting her new patients.