Estate Planning: Controlling the trustee’s administration of a trust

Typically the settlor of a revocable living trust is also the initial trustee until they either resign or are unable to manage the affairs of the trust due to incapacity or death.

While the settlor is alive and competent, however, the settlor of a revocable trust may still direct the trustee’s administration of the settlor’s trust owned assets.

This is because assets in a revocable trust belong to the person who has the power to revoke the trust (usually the settlors) and own the assets free of trust.

With revocable trusts, the settlor may provide written directions, acceptable to the trustee, telling the trustee what to do with trust assets.

Alternatively, the trustee may delegate this power of direction over the trust administration to another person who can likewise direct the trustee’s actions (Probate Code section 16001).

Since January 1, 2024, with the California Uniform Directed Trust Act (Sections 16600 et seq. Probate Code), a power of direction over the trust is not limited to revocable trusts but may be expressly included within the trust document itself. That is, both revocable and irrevocable California trusts can be drafted as directed trusts to include a trust director with a power of appointment over, “some aspect(s) of the trust administration.”

The subject matter of the power of direction, for example, might be the power to direct investing the trust assets (brokerage accounts), to manage trust owned property (e.g., rentals), and to decide when and how to make distributions to or for the benefit of trust beneficiaries (section 16602(d) Probate Code).

With a directed trust arrangement, the directed trustee is required to take reasonable steps to implement the power of direction given by the trust director (section 16614(a) Probate Code). The directed trustee’s role (involvement) in the trust administration is, therefore, reduced to the same extent that authority is given to one or more trust directors.

The trust director’s power of direction (authority) needs to be clearly defined. One approach is to allocate certain trustee duties and/or powers wholly to the trust director. The trust could even appoint separate trust directors over separate aspects of the trust administration. Thus, settlors can appoint trusted advisors as trust directors.

A directed trust creates a decentralized administration of the estate where the trustee(s) and the trust director(s) collectively manage the assets and affairs of the trust estate as a team.

Whereas the traditional sole trustee administration makes the trustee responsible for all aspects of administration.

While the trustee can delegate some (not all) duties he is still responsible to supervise the delegated duties, with the limited exception of delegation to an independent investment advisor.

A directed trustee, however, is not responsible to supervise a trust director, and vice versa. In fact, the directed trustee and the trust director are relieved of liability for each other’s actions and inactions (Sections 16612 and 16614 Probate Code).

Moreover, the new law also applies to the co-trustee arrangement. That is, it is possible to segment the trustee duties or compartmentalize assets and duties amongst co-trustees.

Co-trustees otherwise are collectively and severally responsible for the entire administration of all trust assets and cannot delegate the entire office of trustee to one co-trustee.

Now, however, it is possible for a trust to narrowly segment (carve out) certain aspects of the overall trust administration and specifically allocate the same to one co-trustee (Section 16620 Probate Code).

Furthermore, it is possible for a trust to more broadly compartmentalize the administration of certain (special) assets and allocate all responsibilities over such assets to one co-trustee (a special co-trustee). Thus, co-trustees can now operate autonomously of each other with respect to some duties over all assets or with respect to all duties over special trust assets.

In sum, trusts can divide out responsibilities amongst several fiduciaries by taking authority from the trustee(s) and allocating authority to trust directors or co-trustees.

This new estate planning tool can provide creative and useful solutions where the estate planning goals are otherwise unattainable.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.

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Written by: Dennis Fordham

Published: 22 March 2025

Space News: NASA to launch three rockets from Alaska in single aurora experiment

Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth’s far upper atmosphere.

The experiment’s outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora’s interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space weather forecasting, critical as the world becomes increasingly reliant on satellite-based devices such as GPS units in everyday life.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks, or UAF, Geophysical Institute owns Poker Flat, located 20 miles north of Fairbanks, and operates it under a contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which is part of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The experiment, titled Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events, or AWESOME, features one four-stage rocket and two two-stage rockets all launching in an approximately three-hour period.

Colorful vapor tracers from the largest of the three rockets should be visible across much of northern Alaska. The launch window is March 24 through April 6.

The mission, led by Mark Conde, a space physics professor at UAF, involves about a dozen UAF graduate student researchers at several ground monitoring sites in Alaska at Utqiagvik, Kaktovik, Toolik Lake, Eagle, and Venetie, as well as Poker Flat. NASA delivers, assembles, tests, and launches the rockets.

“Our experiment asks the question, when the aurora goes berserk and dumps a bunch of heat in the atmosphere, how much of that heat is spent transporting the air upward in a continuous convective plume and how much of that heat results in not only vertical but also horizontal oscillations in the atmosphere?” Conde said.

Confirming which process is dominant will reveal the breadth of the mixing and the related changes in the thin air’s characteristics.

“Change in composition of the atmosphere has consequences,” Conde said. “And we need to know the extent of those consequences.”

Most of the thermosphere, which reaches from about 50 to 350 miles above the surface, is what scientists call “convectively stable.” That means minimal vertical motion of air, because the warmer air is already at the top, due to absorption of solar radiation.

When auroral substorms inject energy and momentum into the middle and lower thermosphere (roughly 60 to 125 miles up), it upsets that stability. That leads to one prevailing theory — that the substorms’ heat is what causes the vertical-motion churn of the thermosphere.

Conde believes instead that acoustic-buoyancy waves are the dominant mixing force and that vertical convection has a much lesser role. Because acoustic-buoyancy waves travel vertically and horizontally from where the aurora hits, the aurora-caused atmospheric changes could be occurring over a much broader area than currently believed.

Better prediction of impacts from those changes is the AWESOME mission’s practical goal.

“I believe our experiment will lead to a simpler and more accurate method of space weather prediction,” Conde said.

Two two-stage, 42-foot Terrier-Improved Malemute rockets are planned to respectively launch about 15 minutes and an hour after an auroral substorm begins. A four-stage, 70-foot Black Brant XII rocket is planned to launch about five minutes after the second rocket.

The first two rockets will release tracers at altitudes of 50 and 110 miles to detect wind movement and wave oscillations. The third rocket will release tracers at five altitudes from 68 to 155 miles.

Pink, blue, and white vapor traces should be visible from the third rocket for 10 to 20 minutes. Launches must occur in the dawn hours, with sunlight hitting the upper altitudes to activate the vapor tracers from the first rocket but darkness at the surface so ground cameras can photograph the tracers’ response to air movement.

Rod Boyce works for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

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Written by: Rod Boyce

Published: 22 March 2025

Supervisors agree to discuss sanitation district operations with city of Clearlake

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors has agreed to begin discussions this summer with the city of Clearlake regarding the governance of the Lake County Sanitation District as it relates to its operations in the city.

Supervisors Bruno Sabatier and Helen Owen took the city’s request for the discussions to their colleagues at the Feb. 25 meeting.

The city’s request for dialogue about the Lake County Special Districts, or LACOSAN, Southeast System initially was made in April 2024.

Their report said the city requested that the Board of Supervisors — sitting also in its capacity as the LACOSAN Board of Directors — “engage in discussions with City officials on a governance model that would provide greater involvement from the City in maintenance and operations of the District.”

LACOSAN is part of Lake County Special Districts.

Sabatier and Owen said in their written report that they’ve met and discussed the request with Special Districts, the Lake County administration and the city of Clearlake about this request. “We are requesting that the Board of Supervisors approve initiating discussions with the City of Clearlake delegation to seek various options on how future engagements will be handled between both jurisdictions.”

They requested that the county delegation for the discussions include themselves, one administration team member and Special Districts Director Robin Borre.

During the meeting, Sabatier noted there have been ongoing issues with LACOSAN’s operations, especially in the Highlands area of Clearlake. He said there has been a million gallons of raw sewage that has leaked out of the system, some of it going into the lake.

Sabatier said there is now a different relationship between the county and city, which he hopes is positive. He pointed out that LACOSAN is controlled by the county but operating within the city.

City Manager Alan Flora said he appreciated Sabatier and Owen for bringing the matter forward and he is looking forward to working together.

There was no public comment before the board began its deliberations, with Supervisor Brad Rasmussen leading off by saying he was in favor of approving the request.

Supervisor Jessica Pyska didn’t support the proposal, saying she didn’t see how it benefitted the county.

“We are in partnership and there have been some historical problems,” said Sabatier, adding that by approving the proposal, the board is saying they are coming to the table with the city to work together.

“We do need to look into this,” said Owen, noting there have been major spills, one of them in her district. “This is something that we do need to resolve.”

Borre said discussions with Clearlake could open it up for other groups to want to enter into similar discussions.

Pyska said that was her concern, and that it could result in unfair representation with LACOSAN. She said the county has a good relationship with the city, adding that she didn’t see it as benefiting the rest of the county, including her constituency.

Sabatier said the very first conversation should be the definition of the district, and he believes there are opportunities if they open up a dialog.

Borre said she would have to carve out time to have discussions, explaining she and her staff already spend a significant amount of time dealing with Clearlake issues.

Pyska said the county was in the midst of other work, including negotiations involving The Geysers pipeline, and she didn’t support diverting staff time. “I am not in favor of going down this road.”

Owen said they needed to take action and that she didn’t want to see any more overflows.

Borre said that, since she has worked for the county — she was hired in May of 2024 — there haven’t been significant overflows. She said there were a few minor spills in Clearlake in September but there were no spills during major storms, which she credited to her staff’s ingenuity and being proactive.

Board Chair EJ Crandell said that he also didn’t support the discussions because of staff’s work and deadlines on other matters.

Rasmussen made two motions, the first to approve initiating discussions with Clearlake, with Owen seconded and the board approved 3-2, with Crandell and Pyska voting no.

His second motion was to approve placing Owen, Sabatier, Borre and a member of the county administrative officer’s staff on the delegation to meet with Clearlake.

Pyska said she was concerned about the impact on the rest of the county and she wanted a different composition for the discussion group. She asked Rasmussen if he would be willing to sit on the delegation and he said he was open to it.

Sabatier, however, said he wanted to keep it to supervisors within that jurisdiction area.

County Administrative Officer Susan Parker told the board that her office is greatly involved in The Geysers discussions and the county budget until June 30, as well as working on issues related to the Potter Valley Project. As a result, she asked that the discussions begin after July 1.

Rasmussen, Owen and Sabatier were all OK with it. With Rasmussen’s motion amended to include that timeline, the board voted 3-2, again with Crandell and Pyska voting no.

Clearlake City Council gets update on action

At the March 6 Clearlake City Council meeting, Flora recounted how the council had adopted a resolution in April 2024 relating to the Southeast System, which is an independent system in which the supervisors serve as the board.

He said the city has had a number of issues and frustrations over operation of the system over the last few years.

When the city was incorporated, it should have been given seats as part of the governing board and that did not happen, Flora said.

Flora said those concerns led to the council’s approval of the April resolution seeking to discuss the Southeast System’s governance with the Board of Supervisors.

He said there was more discussion than he expected at the board meeting, and said it was “quite disappointing to see,” regarding the narrow votes to approve the city’s request.

However, the good news is that there will be a discussion starting after July 1, Flora said.

Vice Mayor Dirk Slooten said it was time the city gets involved, noting numerous spills and odor issues. He said the city needs to be proactive, and that the system is antiquated and needs to be brought up to standards.

Mayor Russell Cremer agreed with Slooten. He said he also was disappointed by the narrow vote in support. “This is affecting our city.”

Sabatier, who attended the council meeting, said he appreciated the request from the city and was glad the board gave approval to move forward. Cremer said he appreciated Sabatier advocating for the city.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, and on Bluesky, @erlarson.bsky.social. Find Lake County News on the following platforms: Facebook, @LakeCoNews; X, @LakeCoNews; Threads, @lakeconews, and on Bluesky, @lakeconews.bsky.social.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 21 March 2025