Current as of November 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.
Virginia is a commissioner of accounts state. Executors, administrators and testamentary trustees file their accounts not directly with a judge but with a commissioner of accounts appointed by the circuit court in the jurisdiction where they qualified. Living trusts sit outside that system and answer to the Virginia Uniform Trust Code, Title 64.2, Chapter 7. A Virginia accounting starts by asking which of the two applies.
Who must provide an accounting in Virginia
Section 64.2-775 sets the reporting duty for all trusts. The trustee keeps the qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed and responds promptly to a beneficiary's request for information. Virginia adds a protection for the trustee: one who declines to furnish information in a good faith belief that doing so would be unreasonable or contrary to the settlor's purposes is not subject to removal or other sanctions for it.
Within sixty days of accepting the trusteeship, the trustee notifies the qualified beneficiaries of the acceptance and of the trustee's name, address and telephone number. Within sixty days of learning that a trust is irrevocable, it tells them of the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, their right to a copy of the instrument, and their right to a report. The report goes at least annually and at termination to the distributees and permissible distributees, and to any other beneficiary who requests it. A beneficiary may waive reports and later withdraw the waiver.
Section 64.2-703 lists the provisions a trust's terms cannot override. The duty to inform and report is not among them.
What a Virginia trust accounting must contain
The section 64.2-775 report covers the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, including the source and amount of the trustee's compensation, a listing of the trust assets and, if feasible, their market values.
An account before the commissioner is a statement of all money and other property the fiduciary has received, become chargeable with, or disbursed during the period. Section 64.2-1206 requires every account to be signed by all the fiduciaries.
Income and principal allocation in Virginia
Virginia repealed its Uniform Principal and Income Act and adopted the 2018 Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act as Chapter 10.1 of Title 64.2. It applies to trusts and estates existing or created on or after July 1, 2022. That puts Virginia with California, Florida and Utah on these pages. A Virginia account allocates under UFIPA, including its unitrust article.
Filing an accounting with the commissioner of accounts
The deadlines differ by fiduciary. A personal representative files a first account within sixteen months of qualifying, covering the first twelve months, and then an account for each following twelve-month period within four months after it ends. A testamentary trustee files a calendar-year account on or before May 1 of the year after the trust is first funded, and by May 1 each year after that. Where a trustee is a qualified corporate trustee, or the trust may file its income tax return on a fiscal year, accounts may follow the trust's fiscal year, with the first due within sixteen months of initial funding. Conservators and guardians of a minor's estate file within six months of qualifying and annually after that, under oath.
A will may relieve a testamentary trustee of filing. Under section 64.2-1307, if the will of a decedent probated on or after July 1, 1993 waives the trustee's obligation to account, or the sole beneficiary is also a trustee, the trustee need not file with the commissioner. Where the waiver is in the will, the trustee must within ninety days notify the adult current beneficiaries, give them the will's waiver language and a copy of the section, tell them of their right to an annual accounting, and provide one on request. Any adult beneficiary may later demand in writing that the trustee settle annually with the commissioner, and the circuit court may order annual accounts in the beneficiaries' interest.
When a Virginia accounting is contested
Section 64.2-796 bars a proceeding for breach of trust more than one year after the beneficiary or a representative was sent a report that adequately disclosed the potential claim and stated the time allowed to bring it. Where no such report was sent, the 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. A claim for fraud in a proceeding or statement under the trust code runs two years from discovery.
Five years is longer than the outer period in most Uniform Trust Code states. A trustee who wants the shorter one-year period needs a report that discloses enough to start it.
How T.E.A. Fiduciary helps
We prepare Virginia accounts for filing with the commissioner of accounts by personal representatives, testamentary trustees and conservators, and section 64.2-775 reports for living trusts, with income and principal allocated under UFIPA. We work alongside your attorney and your tax preparer; we do not prepare tax returns.
This page provides general information about Virginia 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: Code of Virginia Title 64.2, Virginia 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
