Do I Need the Court to Appoint Me As A Trustee?

In New York, you don’t need the court to appoint you as a trustee. The trust is enough of a document to give you the power to conduct business of the trust, even after the person who set up the trust died. Unlike some other states, there is no need to have the trust approved by the court, unless there are some special circumstances. A will, on the other hand, does not work without being approved by the court – being nominated as an executor of the will does not make a person an executor, they have to be approved and appointed by the court first. Not so with the trust. Once the trust is property executed and everyone signs and notarizes, you are the trustee at that instant.