Can a court remove an estate trustee on an emergency basis without notice if they're actively dissipating assets?

Yes, courts have tools for genuine emergencies. Where there's real, urgent evidence that an estate trustee is actively dissipating or misusing estate assets — not just a general worry, but concrete signs that assets are being spent improperly, hidden, or put at real risk right now — a court can act on an urgent basis, and in a sufficiently pressing case, even without giving the trustee advance notice of the application.

This kind of emergency step is reserved for situations where waiting for a normal, fully noticed application would let real harm happen in the meantime, for example, clear evidence assets are being actively drained. Courts don't grant this lightly or routinely; they expect solid evidence, not suspicion, because acting without notice to the other side is itself an unusual step that the court will want justified.

Because the bar for urgent, no-notice relief is genuinely high, and because filing prematurely on weak evidence can backfire, anyone who believes an estate trustee is actively dissipating assets should gather whatever concrete evidence they have — bank records, unusual transactions, communications — and get advice immediately on whether the situation truly meets the threshold for emergency relief or calls for a standard removal application instead.