Current as of November 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.
Michigan adopted the Uniform Trust Code as Article VII of the Estates and Protected Individuals Code, effective April 1, 2010. It kept the uniform annual report and added its own timing: notices are due within 63 days rather than sixty. Michigan also requires personal representatives to account to estate beneficiaries every year, and it lets a settlor create a trust with a nondisclosure period.
Who must provide an accounting in Michigan
Section 700.7814 requires the trustee to keep the qualified trust beneficiaries reasonably informed about the administration of the trust and the material facts they need to protect their interests, and to respond promptly to a beneficiary's request for information unless that would be unreasonable.
Within 63 days after accepting a trusteeship, the trustee must notify the qualified trust beneficiaries of the acceptance, of the court in which the trust is registered, if it is registered, and of the trustee's name, address and telephone number. Within 63 days after learning that an irrevocable trust has been created, or that a revocable trust has become irrevocable, the trustee must tell them of the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, the court of registration, if any, and their right to request a copy of the trust terms that affect their interests. The trustee must also give advance notice of any change in the method or rate of compensation.
The annual report goes to the distributees and permissible distributees of income or principal, and to any other beneficiary, qualified or not, who asks for it. A beneficiary may waive reports and later withdraw the waiver.
Section 700.7105 lists the provisions a trust's terms cannot override. The duty to provide the trust terms and information about the trust property, and the two 63-day notices, are on the list. The annual report is not, so a Michigan trust instrument can shape it. Under section 700.7409a, a settlor may also create a trust with a nondisclosure period, during which the trustee may withhold the trust's terms and existence from beneficiaries to the extent the instrument directs.
What a Michigan trust accounting must contain
The report covers the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, including the source and amount of the trustee's compensation, and a listing of the trust property with market values if feasible. When a trusteeship becomes vacant and no cotrustee remains, the former trustee sends a report to the qualified beneficiaries. A personal representative, conservator or guardian may send it for a trustee who has died or become incapacitated.
Where the trust terms direct that accounts go to fewer than all the qualified beneficiaries, the court may order the trustee to provide statements of account and other information to those excluded.
Income and principal allocation in Michigan
Allocation is governed by Michigan's Uniform Principal and Income Act, 2004 PA 159, effective September 1, 2004, at MCL 555.501 and following. Section 555.504 gives the trustee a power to adjust between principal and income when the trust is invested as a prudent investor and the distribution standard refers to income.
Filing an accounting with the Michigan court
Under section 700.7201, a trust is not subject to continuing judicial supervision unless the court orders it, and the submission of an account or report to beneficiaries proceeds without court involvement. The court acts when an interested person invokes its jurisdiction, including to require, hear and settle interim or final accounts.
Michigan estates carry their own reporting duty. Under section 700.3703(4), until a beneficiary's share is fully distributed, the personal representative must account to each beneficiary every year, and again on completing the estate settlement, with a statement of the estate's activities that specifies all receipts and disbursements and identifies the estate's property. A personal representative who wants a court order approving the final account may petition for one under section 700.3953.
When a Michigan accounting is contested
Section 700.7905 sets the limitation periods. A beneficiary may not bring a proceeding for breach of trust more than one year after being sent a report that adequately disclosed the potential claim and told the beneficiary how long they had to bring it. A report discloses adequately if it gives enough information that the beneficiary knows of the claim or should have inquired into it.
A beneficiary who waived reports has one year after the end of the calendar year in which the alleged breach occurred. Otherwise, the outer limit is five years from the first of the trustee's removal, resignation or death, the end of the beneficiary's interest, or the end of the trust.
The one-year period runs only from a report that both discloses the claim and states the deadline. A report that leaves out either one does not start it.
How T.E.A. Fiduciary helps
We prepare Michigan trust reports built to the section 700.7814 specification and to the disclosure the section 700.7905 one-year bar requires, and the annual and final statements personal representatives owe estate beneficiaries under section 700.3703. We work alongside your attorney and your tax preparer; we do not prepare tax returns.
This page provides general information about Michigan fiduciary accounting requirements and is not legal or tax advice. Statutes and court rules change. Verify the current text before relying on any of it, and consult counsel on questions of legal interpretation.
More: the uniform framework · all state pages · our services
Primary source: Estates and Protected Individuals Code, MCL 700.1101 et seq., Michigan Legislature.
Written by Christina Gutman, C.P.A. — Founder and Principal of T.E.A. Fiduciary. Christina is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant by the State of California and has specialized exclusively in fiduciary accounting for over a decade, preparing trust, estate, and conservatorship accountings for law firms, professional fiduciaries, trust companies, family offices, and individual trustees nationwide. She has also served as a forensic consultant in contested accounting matters. More about Christina
