My stepfather recently passed, he had a living trust and I was named as the successor trustee. My mother passed several years ago so technically he was single at the time of death. He didn't have many assets - a SUV, some coins, bank account, 50K life insurance policy, various other items - no more than about $100K (including the life insurance) in all I would estimate and all as part of the trust.

His trust specifies that 1 person gets $5K, a non-profit gets $5K and than the balance s is split between my brother and I.

My questions are:
1) I understand a tax return needs to be filed for the trust, does one need to be filed for my stepfather too or is it all part of the trust? (If it matters my stepfather main source of income was social security)
2) What is taxable as part of the trust?
3) Are distributions taxable to the beneficiaries?
4) Anything else I should know?

My stepfather lived in California

Thanks in advance

The tax treatment of living trusts depends so much on the wording of the trust that you do NOT want to depend on any on-line advice on this matter.

RUN, don't walk to a competent local tax professional with experience in trust tax issues to get your questions answered for both federal and state taxes.