In a recent Florida Appeals decision, Landau v. Landau, a trustee who failed to file proper and complete trust accountings for two years, and to file trust income tax returns for the same two years, was hit with a freeze of the trust assets by the Court. Because the trustee was also the lifetime income beneficiary of the trust, this freeze effectually prevented the trustee from using the trust for his own support.

Florida trust law requires that a trustee file annual trust accountings. This is true whether the trustee is a bank or trust company, or, as here, was the surviving spouse of the decedent who had created the trust for his lifetime benefit.
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