Commissions of trustees; advance payment of fees of an attorney-trustee · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 8005. Commissions of trustees; advance payment of fees of an attorney-trustee. A trustee of an express trust shall be entitled to commissions and the allowance of his expenses and compensation and, if he be an attorney admitted to practice in this state, to the allowance of a sum on account of his compensation for legal services theretofore rendered to the trust, in the same manner and amount as that provided by sections twenty-one hundred eleven, twenty-three hundred eight and twenty-three hundred eleven of the surrogate's court procedure act for testamentary trustees, if the trust was established on or before August thirty-first, nineteen hundred fifty-six, or as that provided by sections twenty-one hundred eleven, twenty-three hundred nine and twenty-three hundred eleven of the surrogate's court procedure act for testamentary trustees, if the trust was established after August thirty-first, nineteen hundred fifty-six or as that provided for by sections twenty-one hundred eleven and twenty-three hundred eleven for testamentary trustees and twenty-three hundred twelve of the surrogate's court procedure act except that the statements required thereunder to be furnished annually in order to retain certain annual commissions need be furnished during the settlor's lifetime only to beneficiaries currently receiving income. The court shall make such determinations and allowances as the named sections require or authorize the surrogate to make, and the term "will" used in those sections shall be construed to mean the instrument creating the trust and the phrase "the court from which his letters were issued" shall be construed to mean the court having jurisdiction of the trust.
An express-trust trustee receives commissions, expenses, compensation, and—if a New York attorney—an advance allowance for prior legal services under the named SCPA rules for testamentary trustees: §§ 2111, 2308 and 2311 if the trust was created on or before August 31, 1956, §§ 2111, 2309 and 2311 if created after that date, or §§ 2111, 2311 and 2312. Under the § 2312 option, during the settlor’s life, annual statements needed to retain certain commissions go only to current income beneficiaries. The court makes the determinations assigned there to the Surrogate, reading “will” as the trust instrument and the letters-issuing court as the court with trust jurisdiction. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 1 — The Court Clerk in Plain English; Volume 2 — The Court Clerk: Civil Practice Law and Rules; Volume 1 — Your Career: Civil Practice in Plain English.