Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Louisiana
I am trustee of brother's small special needs trust in LA, and I have no accounting skills. Because I am caregiver of my terminally ill father, also, work full-time, and have a family, I am overwhelmed in my trustee role. I was never provided a written step-by-step guide for administering a trust from our attny. My record keeping is in the form of loose receipts thrown into a box and my past credit card bills showing expenses paid. I need to repay myself for these expenses b/c I now help Dad pay "out-of-pocket" for 24/7 sitters. I haven't the vaguest idea of where to begin with this record keeping. Help!
1 Answer from Attorneys
A good idea would be to get a simple accounting program for the computer, whereby deposits and payments can be recorded and tracked. This is important in case there is ever a question about you as trustee. A trustee is held to a higher standard of responsibility than ordinary person. Don't do computers? An expensive account book may be enough. You enter the deposits in the book, keeping actual deposit slip in a file marked deposits. Anything you pay out-you list under expenses-keeping receipts in a file marked expenses. When you pay yourself, if for more than one expense at a time-identify the expense as repayment and identify each individual expense incorporated into the repayment. Always identify what the expense was for. Any accounting method you decide on will be an expense for which you can be repaid.