A trust can have one trustee or many. In the event of multiple trustees, the older common law rules required that all trustees act unanimously.See UTC Section 703, comment p. 110. The modern rule reflected in the UTC permits co-trustees to act by majority vote.UTC Section 703(a). Where a co-trustee is unable to be actively involved in the management of the trust due to age or illness, the remaining co-trustees can generally act on behalf of the trust "to achieve the purposes of the trust or to avoid injury to the trust property."UTC Section 703(d). However, it is generally better practice for the co-trustee either to resign or to otherwise delegate his decision-making functions while incapacitated to one or all of the remaining co-trustees.See UTC Section 703(c). A trustee who dissents from acting in a certain way with his fellow co-trustees is protected under the Code from liability provided the trustee has indicated his dissent and only acts based on the direction of the majority co-trustees.UTC Section 703(h). In practical terms, the use of co-trustees can often become unwieldy. The Code generally notes this and advises great care for attorneys who draft documents that use multiple co-trustees.See UTC Section 703, comment, pp. 109-110.
