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Home  /  Specialized / Industry-Specific  /  Trust and estate accounting

Records that hold up to scrutiny.

Fiduciary bookkeeping for trustees and executors, kept to the standard a beneficiary or a court is entitled to expect.

Trust and estate accounting in Cedar Park, TX

A trustee or an executor holds property for someone else, and the record keeping that goes with that duty is different from ordinary bookkeeping. Every receipt, every disbursement, and every allocation has to be traceable and explainable to a beneficiary who may have questions years later.

Fiduciary accounting keeps those records to that standard. Principal and income separated, distributions documented, and a formal accounting produced in the form a beneficiary or a court expects.

  • Principal and income separated

    The core discipline of fiduciary accounting, because income beneficiaries and remainder beneficiaries have different interests and misallocation between them is a real exposure.

  • A complete inventory of assets

    Opening inventory at date of death or trust funding, valued and documented, with every subsequent change recorded against it.

  • Receipts and disbursements logged in full

    Every item recorded with date, amount, counterparty, and its principal or income classification. No summarized entries.

  • A formal accounting for beneficiaries

    Presented in a recognizable fiduciary format showing what came in, what went out, and what remains, rather than a business profit and loss.

Who carries this responsibility

Usually someone appointed to the role rather than someone who chose it.

Individual trustees

A family member or a friend named as trustee, personally responsible for records they have never been asked to keep before.

Executors and personal representatives

Administering an estate through to distribution, with beneficiaries entitled to a proper account of it.

Attorneys supporting a fiduciary

Legal counsel handling the administration who needs the accounting records maintained to a standard alongside their work.

How a fiduciary file is maintained

  • 1

    Establish the opening position

    Assets identified, valued at the correct date, and documented. Everything that follows is measured from this inventory.

  • 2

    Set the classification rules

    How receipts and disbursements will be allocated between principal and income, agreed at the outset and applied consistently.

  • 3

    Record continuously, not retrospectively

    Entries made as activity occurs. Reconstructing a fiduciary record two years later is expensive and materially weaker.

  • 4

    Produce the accounting when required

    Periodic or final accountings prepared in proper form, with supporting schedules, for beneficiaries or for filing where required.

Supporting trustees in Texas and California

We support trustees and executors around Cedar Park, TX and the Austin, TX area, and remotely in San Diego County. Fiduciary duties and accounting requirements are set by state law and by the governing instrument, and they differ between Texas and California, so we work alongside the attorney handling the administration rather than substituting for legal guidance. Fiduciary returns go to an outside tax partner who receives complete records from us.

Questions trustees and executors ask

  • What is the difference between principal and income?

    Broadly, principal is the underlying property and income is what it generates. The exact allocation is governed by the trust instrument and state law, which is why the rules get agreed with the attorney at the start.

  • Does the fiduciary return go through you?

    No. That work goes to an outside tax partner. We maintain the fiduciary records and provide the schedules the filing is built from.

  • A beneficiary is asking for an accounting. Can you help?

    Yes. If records exist we work from them. Where they are incomplete we reconstruct from bank and asset records and clearly identify anything that could not be established.

  • How long should fiduciary records be kept?

    Well beyond the administration, since beneficiaries can raise questions years later. We hand over a complete organized record set at the end of an engagement, not just a final statement.

Related record-keeping work

Financial statement preparation

Formal statements where an entity within the estate requires them.

Read about it →

Catch-up and cleanup bookkeeping

Reconstructing records that were not kept during administration.

Read about it →

Real estate investor bookkeeping

Where the trust or estate holds rental property.

Read about it →

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Carrying a fiduciary responsibility?

Book a consultation and tell us what stage the administration is at. We will explain what records the role requires.

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