Case study: adult children ask the trustee for accounts

When a beneficiary asks a trustee for accounts, the request is rarely hostile. It is usually a sign that someone wants to understand what the family structure holds and how it is run. This case study follows one such request from the first letter to the trustee's reply, so that you can see what a lawful request looks like, what a trustee examines before answering, and where the answer has limits.

A fictional case, clearly labelled

Everything below is invented. The family, the trust and the dates of events are an illustration built to show a method. No real person, trustee or structure is described, and no outcome here predicts what would happen in your own situation. Your answer depends on the trust deed, the law governing the trust, the country where the beneficiaries live and the nature of the assets. That is why a real request always needs an individual analysis.

The facts of the case

Example: a family established in Lausanne. The parents created a discretionary trust some years ago with a corporate trustee in Geneva. The trust holds a portfolio, a minority stake in the family company and a holiday property. The parents are named as settlors, and an independent protector sits alongside the trustee.

Two adult children are named as beneficiaries in the trust deed, together with their own future children. Until now the parents have dealt with the trustee. The children have seen a one-page summary at a family lunch and nothing else.

After a conversation with their own adviser, the children write to the trustee. They ask for the latest trust accounts, a list of the assets held, and a statement of the distributions made during the last financial period. They also ask whether the trustee is supervised and how decisions are recorded.

Why a request like this is lawful

A trust is not a private arrangement between the settlor and the trustee alone. Under Article 2 of the Hague Trust Convention, the assets are placed under the control of a trustee in the interest of a beneficiary or for a specified purpose. They form a separate fund, the title stands in the trustee's name, and the trustee has the power and the duty to manage the assets and to account for them. The duty to account is part of the definition, not an optional courtesy.

That does not mean every beneficiary may see every paper. What the beneficiary can ask for, and how much the trustee must disclose, depends on the trust deed and on the law that governs it. The page on what a trustee owes the beneficiaries explains the underlying duties, and the guide on what information your trustee must give you covers the practical side.

A second point matters in Switzerland. Under Article 61 of the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA, or LEFin), trustees are subject to FINMA supervision, which involves a supervisory organisation. A trustee that works professionally is therefore used to being asked questions and to documenting its answers. If you want to know what that approval means in practice, read FINMA and SO-FIT: what trustee approval means for you.

Request, review, reply

The trustee in our case does not answer on the day the letter arrives, and it does not refuse by reflex. It follows a short sequence.

The questions the trustee examines

Are the writers really beneficiaries?

The trustee first checks the trust deed and the register of beneficiaries. In a discretionary trust, a person may be named only as a possible object of the trustee's discretion rather than as a person with a fixed entitlement. That difference can change the scope of what the person may see. Here, the children are named in the deed, so the trustee treats their request as coming from persons with a legitimate interest.

Identification also matters. The trustee has its own obligations on knowing who is involved in the structure, which is why the work described under compliance and reporting sits behind many of these exchanges. The trustee will therefore ask the children to confirm their identity in the usual way.

What does the trust deed say about information?

Some deeds say little. Others grant beneficiaries a right to annual accounts, or limit disclosure to what the trustee considers appropriate. The trustee reads the clauses, including any reserved powers of the settlor, any exculpation clause and any wording on the protector's role. The protector's consent may be needed for some disclosures, which is one reason why working with a protector is worth understanding before a request arrives.

Does the settlor's letter of wishes matter?

The parents have left a letter of wishes that expresses a preference for discretion towards the next generation until the children reach a certain stage. A letter of wishes guides the trustee but does not bind it. The trustee weighs it, records that it did so, and does not treat it as a reason to ignore a lawful request.

Which documents are accounts, and which are something else?

A request for accounts is not a request for every file held about the trust. The trustee separates three groups:

This is a general pattern, not a rule. In another trust, the deed could push every line of this table the other way.

Is there a conflict among the family?

The trustee asks whether the request is a prelude to a dispute, and whether sharing information with the children would affect the parents' position. A professional trustee stays neutral between family members. The same neutrality that is discussed in the situation page on blended family trustee neutrality applies here, even though this family is not blended.

The measured reply

The trustee writes to the children within a reasonable time. The tone is calm and factual. The reply typically does five things:

1. It confirms that the request was received and that the writers are recognised as beneficiaries under the deed.
2. It encloses the most recent accounts and an asset summary, in plain terms.
3. It explains which further documents are not enclosed and why, with a reference to the deed rather than to personal preference.
4. It describes how decisions are recorded and how the trustee is supervised, without naming any individual outside the structure.
5. It offers a meeting, so that questions can be put orally and not through a chain of letters.

Nothing in the reply praises the structure or makes promises about what the trust will do for the children in future. It informs. The parents are told that a request was made and that a reply was sent, because they are the settlors and the discussion stays open, but their consent is not a condition of the reply.

Limits of the case

This case is deliberately simple. Several things could make a real situation harder:

• A deed that gives the beneficiaries no express information right, or that places the question in the trustee's discretion.
• A trust governed by the law of another country, where the beneficiaries' rights differ from those assumed here.
• Beneficiaries who live in several countries, so that local reporting or disclosure rules also come into play.
• A request that arrives while a dispute is already under way, which is covered separately under a dispute between beneficiaries and the trustee.

If the accounts reveal gaps, a different path opens. In the case an independent review reveals missing minutes, the finding leads to a structured review rather than to a quarrel.

What the family can take from it

• Read the trust deed before writing, so that the request names the right documents.
• Ask for specific items: accounts, asset list, distributions to you.
• Keep the letter short, factual and dated.
• Expect an identity check before any document is released.
• Ask how decisions and supervision are recorded.
• Take the reply to your own adviser before you answer further.

If the reply leaves you unsure whether the trustee is the right one for the family, the due diligence questions to ask your trustee are a sensible next read.