successor trustee

Successor Trustee is the person or institution who takes over the management of a living trust property when the original trustee has died or become incapacitated. The exact responsibilities of a successor trustee will vary depending on the instructions left by the creator of the trust (called the grantor). 

Cases such as Sparks v. PNC Bank (2013)explain that “a ‘successor trustee’ is a substituted trustee with only such powers as the deed of trust instrument gives him, and he becomes such only upon the happening of a contingency therein named.”

[Last reviewed in April of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team]

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