RCW 11.98.016
Exercise of powers by co-trustees.
(1) Any power vested in three or more trustees jointly may be exercised by a majority of such trustees; but no trustee who has not joined in exercising a power is liable to the beneficiaries or to others for the consequences of such exercise; nor is a dissenting trustee liable for the consequences of an act in which that trustee joins at the direction of the majority of the trustees, if that trustee expressed his or her dissent in writing to each of the co-trustees at or before the time of such joinder.
(2) Where two or more trustees are appointed to execute a trust and one or more of them for any reason does not accept the appointment or having accepted ceases to be a trustee, the survivor or survivors shall execute the trust and shall succeed to all the powers, duties and discretionary authority given to the trustees jointly.
(3) An individual trustee, with a co-trustee's consent, may, by a signed, written instrument, delegate any power, duty, or authority as trustee to that co-trustee. This delegation is effective upon delivery of the instrument to that co-trustee and may be revoked at any time by delivery of a similar signed, written instrument to that co-trustee. However, if a power, duty, or authority is expressly conferred upon only one trustee, it shall not be delegated to a co-trustee. If that power, duty, or authority is expressly excluded from exercise by a trustee, it shall not be delegated to the excluded trustee.
(4) If one trustee gives written notice to all other co-trustees of an action that the trustee proposes be taken, then the failure of any co-trustee to deliver a written objection to the proposal to the trustee, at the trustee's then address of record and within fifteen days from the date the co-trustee actually receives the notice, constitutes formal approval by the co-trustee, unless the co-trustee had previously given written notice that was unrevoked at the time of the trustee's notice, to that trustee that this fifteen-day notice provision is inoperative.
(5) As to any effective delegation made under subsection (3) of this section, a co-trustee has no liability for failure to participate in the administration of the trust.
Nothing in this section, however, otherwise excuses a co-trustee from liability for failure to participate in the administration of the trust and nothing in this section, including subsection (3) of this section, excuses a co-trustee from liability for the failure to attempt to prevent a breach of trust.
[ 1985 c 30 § 41. Prior: 1984 c 149 § 68; 1959 c 124 § 3. Formerly RCW 30.99.030.]
NOTES:
Short title—Application—Purpose—Severability—1985 c 30: See RCW 11.02.900 through 11.02.903.
Severability—Effective dates—1984 c 149: See notes following RCW 11.02.005.
Structure Revised Code of Washington
Title 11 - Probate and Trust Law
11.98.005 - Trust situs and governing law.
11.98.008 - Trust creation—Methods.
11.98.009 - Application of chapter.
11.98.011 - Trust creation—Requirements.
11.98.012 - Trust creation—Other jurisdictions.
11.98.013 - Trust creation—Allowable purposes.
11.98.014 - Trust creation—Oral trusts.
11.98.015 - Noncharitable trusts without ascertainable beneficiaries.
11.98.016 - Exercise of powers by co-trustees.
11.98.017 - Trusteeship—Accepting and declining—Powers without acceptance.
11.98.019 - Relinquishment of powers by trustee.
11.98.029 - Resignation of trustee.
11.98.041 - Change of trustee—Discharge of outgoing trustee, when.
11.98.045 - Criteria for transfer of trust assets or administration.
11.98.051 - Nonjudicial transfer of trust assets or administration—Notice—Consent required.
11.98.055 - Judicial transfer of situs of trusts.
11.98.060 - Power of successor trustee.
11.98.065 - Change in form of corporate trustee.
11.98.071 - Trustee's delegation of duties.
11.98.072 - Trustee—Notification requirements.
11.98.075 - Certification of trust.
11.98.078 - Trustee duty of loyalty.
11.98.080 - Consolidation of trusts.
11.98.085 - Trustee—Breach of trust—Damages.
11.98.100 - Nonliability for action or inaction based on lack of knowledge of events.
11.98.105 - Nonliability of third persons without knowledge of breach.
11.98.107 - Trustee exculpation.
11.98.108 - Nonliability of trustee—Beneficiary's consent, release, or ratification.
11.98.110 - Contract and tort liability.
11.98.130 - Rule against perpetuities.
11.98.140 - Distribution and vesting of assets.
11.98.145 - Distribution upon termination.
11.98.150 - Distribution of assets after one hundred fifty-year period.
11.98.200 - Beneficiary trustee—Limitations on power.
11.98.220 - Beneficiary trustee—Inferences of law—Judicial review.
11.98.230 - Beneficiary trustee—Income under marital deduction—Spousal power of appointment.
11.98.240 - Beneficiary trustee—Applicability—Exceptions—Election of exception—Cause of action.
11.98.900 - Application of RCW 11.98.130 through 11.98.160—RCW 11.68.090 prevails.
11.98.930 - Construction—Chapter applicable to state registered domestic partnerships—2009 c 521.