What is trust administration

Trust administration is the process of transferring assets to the named beneficiaries of the trust according to the terms of the trust. Trust administration does not require the trustee to go to court and obtain a judge's signature in order to transfer assets. Rather, the trustee is empowered to take all actions on behalf of the trust without any judicial oversight.
The trustee controls all the assets in the trust. The trustee cannot exercise any control over assets that are not in the trust. In order for an asset to be under the trustee's control it must be titled in the name of the trust. For example, in order for John Smith to put his home into his trust he would have to sign and record a deed stating he has conveyed his property from John Smith to John Smith, trustee of the John Smith Trust. When John Smith passes away, John Smith doesn't own the property, the John Smith Trust does. That means with John being dead, the successor trustee named in his trust has the authority to take control over his former home and pass it to the named beneficiaries in his trust on the terms stated in John's trust. If the trustee was doing the trust administration in Riverside County, California then the trustee would not have to go to the Riverside County probate court to get a court order to transfer the assets held by the trust.

To find out if John transferred his bank account or brokerage account or mutual fund account into his trust, you'll need to look at the statements for the account before John died. On the statements you'll see something like "John Smith, Trustee," or "John Smith Family Trust." As long as there's some indication that John has moved the property into the trust, it's practically certain that in fact, the trust is the owner of those accounts. If the account statements simply have John's name without any reference to his trust, you now have to contact the bank or brokerage or mutual fund company and find out if John made the transfer into his trust or not.