Current as of November 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.
North Carolina adopted the Uniform Trust Code in Chapter 36C of the General Statutes but rewrote the reporting section entirely. There is no sixty-day notice requirement and no mandatory annual report. What North Carolina has instead is a court most states lack: the clerk of superior court, who holds original jurisdiction over the internal affairs of trusts, including settling accounts.
Who must provide an accounting in North Carolina
Section 36C-8-813 states the duty in its own terms. The trustee must provide reasonably complete and accurate information about the nature and amount of the trust property, at reasonable intervals, to any qualified beneficiary who is a distributee or permissible distributee of income or principal. On a reasonable request from any qualified beneficiary, the trustee must provide a copy of the trust instrument, the same information about the trust property, and reasonable access to inspect the trust property, accounts and other documents.
The duty does not include telling beneficiaries in advance about transactions. A qualified beneficiary may waive reports and later withdraw the waiver.
Section 36C-1-105 lists the provisions a trust's terms cannot override, and the duty to inform and report is not among them, so a North Carolina settlor can shape or limit it.
What a North Carolina trust accounting must contain
North Carolina describes a safe harbor rather than a mandate. A trustee is considered to have met the duty to provide information at reasonable intervals for matters disclosed in a report sent at least annually and at termination. The report describes the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, including the source and amount of the trustee's compensation, and lists the trust assets with their market values, including estimated values for assets whose value is uncertain. No presumption arises against a trustee who uses some other method.
A testamentary trustee who accounts to the clerk files inventories and annual and final accounts that are the same as those required of executors and administrators.
Income and principal allocation in North Carolina
Allocation is governed by Chapter 37A, North Carolina's Uniform Principal and Income Act. North Carolina has not adopted the 2018 Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act. Chapter 37A includes the trustee's power to adjust and a detailed procedure for converting an income trust to a total return unitrust, including conversion in the trustee's discretion without court approval in some cases.
Filing an accounting with the clerk of superior court
Section 36C-2-209 depends on when the will was executed. For a testamentary trust under a will executed before January 1, 2004, the trustee qualifies as an executor would and files inventories and annual and final accounts with the clerk in the county where the will was probated, unless the will provides otherwise. For a will executed on or after that date, the trustee accounts to the clerk only if the will directs it or other law requires it.
Under section 36C-2-203, the clerk of superior court has original and generally exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings concerning the internal affairs of trusts, including reviewing trustees' fees and reviewing and settling interim or final accounts. The clerk also hears unitrust conversions under Chapter 37A. Claims for money damages, including breach of fiduciary duty, belong in superior court rather than before the clerk, and a party may appeal the clerk's decision to a superior court judge.
When a North Carolina accounting is contested
North Carolina did not adopt the uniform one-year bar that runs from an adequate report. Under section 36C-10-1005, no proceeding against a trustee for breach of trust may begin more than five years after the first of the trustee's removal, resignation or death, the end of the beneficiary's interest, or the end of the trust. Within that outer limit, the ordinary limitation periods of Chapter 1 of the General Statutes apply.
North Carolina adds a representation rule. When a limitation period starts to run against a person, it starts against everyone that person could represent under Article 3 of Chapter 36C, and the usual tolling for minors and others under a disability does not apply to them.
How T.E.A. Fiduciary helps
We prepare North Carolina accounts for filing with the clerk of superior court and annual trust reports built to the section 36C-8-813 safe harbor, including estimated values where an asset's value is uncertain. We work alongside your attorney and your tax preparer; we do not prepare tax returns.
This page provides general information about North Carolina 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: N.C. General Statutes Chapter 36C, North Carolina General Assembly.
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
