The death of a Trustmaker or Grantor of a Trust is typically a trigger for trustees to get busy. If the Trustmaker was also the Trustee, then it is time for the Successor Trustee to take over the role and start acting. The first order of business for the Trustee is to either confirm the trust tax ID number (called an EIN) or if the trust had been using the Trustmaker’s Social Security number, to request a new tax ID number for the trust from the IRS. Next, the trustee needs to confirm which assets the Trust owns and search for any assets that may have the Trust listed as the payable on-death beneficiary and claim those on behalf of the Trust.
Once the Trustee has control of all the Trust assets, they will follow the terms of the Trust regarding distributions upon the Trustmaker’s death. The combinations of these options are limited only by the imagination of the Trustmaker when they created the trust. They may need to distribute assets out to named beneficiaries. They may need to divide assets into ongoing subtrusts for some beneficiaries. If so, these subtrusts will also need their own tax ID numbers. After the Trustmaker dies, it is up to the Trustee to carry out their wishes as stated in the Trust.