Trustees Not Providing Accounts: What Can a Beneficiary Do?
Start with the trust, your interest and the information missing. A focused request can establish what the trustees have done and whether a particular payment, distribution or delay needs explaining.
Trustees must account for their stewardship. That does not give every beneficiary an unrestricted right to every document or to control trustee decisions. The trust’s terms, your interest and the records requested need assessment.
- Identify what is missing: accounts, supporting records and explanations answer different questions.
- Ask specifically: state the period, transaction or decision and keep earlier requests and replies.
- Choose the next step: consider a focused response, solicitor correspondence or negotiation before assessing court action.
Which trusts does this guide cover?
This guide concerns private family trusts in England and Wales, created by a will or during someone’s lifetime. They may include life-interest, discretionary and bare trusts, trusts for children and family property held under an express trust deed. The label alone does not determine your information rights.
First establish whether you are asking about estate administration or an ongoing trust. The same person may act as executor and trustee, but the accounts, duties and available procedures differ. For an estate still being administered, see our beneficiary estate-accounts guide. Offshore, pension, charitable and commercial trusts require a different specialist assessment.
What accounts and information should you request?
Trust accounts should explain the relevant assets, receipts, payments and distributions over an identified period. Depending on the trust, capital and income may need separate treatment. A bank balance alone may not explain ownership, unpaid liabilities or payments to beneficiaries.
| What you need | A focused request |
|---|---|
| The trust’s terms | The will or deed creating the trust and relevant later appointments or variations. |
| The financial position | Accounts for a stated period, identifying trust assets, liabilities, income, expenditure and distributions. |
| A disputed entry | The invoice, statement, valuation or explanation relevant to the identified payment or calculation. |
| A decision affecting you | The decision taken and relevant administration records; assess requests for confidential deliberations separately. |
This is a way to frame the enquiry, not a promise that every document must be disclosed. Schmidt v Rosewood Trust Ltd [2003] UKPC 26 explains disclosure through the court’s supervisory jurisdiction. A discretionary interest does not automatically prevent seeking protection, but the extent and conditions of disclosure require assessment.
How should you make the first request?
- Identify the trust, your relationship to it and the relevant trustee or trustees.
- State the accounts period, specific transaction or unresolved question.
- Explain what has already been supplied and why it leaves a gap.
- Request the relevant records or explanation and a realistic response timetable.
A request for “everything since the trust began” may obscure a narrower issue. Equally, longstanding gaps may justify a wider accounting exercise. Keep original correspondence, avoid unsupported accusations and identify any genuine deadline or immediate risk.
If your status as a beneficiary is disputed, locate the relevant trust wording and family or appointment records first. Information requests and a disputed claim to benefit may need separate analysis.
Case example: Lewis v Tamplin
In Lewis v Tamplin [2018] EWHC 777 (Ch), beneficiaries sought information about trustees’ management of family trust property. The court rejected restrictive arguments against disclosure and considered the records needed to hold the trustees to account. At paragraph 71, it criticised the resistance and observed that earlier cooperation might have avoided litigation.
The practical lesson is to assess the request properly and address relevant information gaps. Beneficiaries do not thereby acquire the trustees’ management powers, and the case does not establish an automatic right to the entire professional file.
What if the reply is missing or incomplete?
Compare the reply with the request before escalating. Distinguish an unavailable record, a document deliberately withheld, an unexplained figure and a disagreement with a decision. Each calls for a different response.
- A limited gap: ask for the missing item and why it matters.
- No meaningful response: consider solicitor correspondence setting out the unresolved request and proposed next step.
- Several connected disputes: a structured information exchange, negotiation or mediation may help.
- Persistent refusal or urgent risk: obtain advice about court relief and protection of assets.
Receiving accounts may reveal a separate issue about expenditure or distribution. Obtaining information does not itself establish a breach, recover money or resolve whether a trustee should be replaced. See trustee deadlock and possible changes.
Are you the trustee receiving the request?
Identify the beneficiary’s interest, the period and the unanswered question. Review the trust instrument, available accounts and supporting records. Explain genuine gaps and the timetable for completing necessary work; distinguish a legitimate request from repetition already adequately answered.
Confidentiality and privilege need document-specific assessment. Advice obtained for trust administration may stand differently from advice about a trustee’s personal exposure. Do not assume that every solicitor communication is privileged against beneficiaries, or that the whole file must be released. Lewis v Tamplin, paragraphs 59–60, explains that distinction.
Justin can review the demands, earlier replies and core records, then quote for a considered response addressing the trustee’s position, appropriate disclosure and next steps. This does not include compiling or certifying accounts or guaranteeing that further questions will stop.
Can the court order trust accounts or disclosure?
The court can supervise trust administration and may order appropriate accounts or disclosure. The application must identify the relief sought, evidence and appropriate parties. CPR Part 64 governs specified estate and trust administration claims and requires the Part 8 procedure for claims within its scope. A separate substantive dispute may require a different assessment.
An ongoing trust-accounts dispute is not the Probate Registry inventory-and-account procedure used for an estate. Do not select a form or assume a hearing will be unnecessary simply because the problem resembles an executor’s failure to account.
Costs are not automatically paid by the trust or the other party. The court’s discretion under CPR Part 44 includes conduct and the reasonableness of the positions pursued. Compare likely expenditure with the information or protection needed. Human Law provides advice and negotiation; contested trust proceedings require a separate litigation practitioner.
What should you gather for advice?
- The trust instrument, relevant wills or deeds, and trustee appointments or retirements.
- What establishes your interest, or your role as trustee.
- Available accounts and records supporting the disputed entries.
- Dated requests, replies and a short list of what remains unanswered.
- The practical result needed and any deadline or immediate asset concern.
You can enquire before obtaining every document. Say what is missing and who appears to hold it.
Fixed-fee help with a request or response
Where the required work is sufficiently clear, Justin can quote directly for a focused accounts request, review of an inadequate reply, a trustee response or defined negotiation. The quotation states the included documents, correspondence, reply allowance and endpoint. Further work needs your approval.
Where diagnosis is needed, the Dispute Assessment & Action Plan costs £480 including VAT (£400 + VAT): up to 40 selected core pages on one principal issue, a 30-minute consultation with Justin and a two-page written Action Plan. It does not include substantive correspondence, a court application or certification of accounts.
The Action Plan is normally delivered within three working days after the consultation and receipt of all required documents, whichever is later. It is a standalone review; the fee is not deducted from later work. See pricing and scope terms and our family trust dispute service.
Send your role, a brief outline and any deadline. Suitability and conflicts are checked before instruction; an enquiry does not commit you to payment. For issued proceedings or immediate risk to assets, seek prompt litigation advice rather than waiting for a routine assessment.
General information for private family trusts in England and Wales. The trust’s terms, your interest and the circumstances determine the appropriate advice.