Also known as: fiduciaries · fiducial · fiducially · fiduciary duty · fiduciary relationship
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person who is required to act for the benefit of another person on all matters within the scope of their relationship. One who owes to another the duties of good faith, trust, confidence, and candor.
Judge Harlan learns that his spouse owns shares in a corporation that is a defendant in a pending contract dispute. The judge immediately discloses the holding and steps aside from the case. The disclosure prevents any appearance that the judge might favor the corporation because of the family stake.
Felix Franco tells Frederick Ferguson that Ferguson may negotiate and sign supply contracts on Franco's behalf and must follow Franco's pricing instructions. Ferguson agrees and begins contacting vendors. The consent and acceptance establish that Ferguson owes Franco duties of loyalty and care in every transaction he conducts.
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Fatou Fall's will names her niece as executor and leaves the estate to her. The will contains a clause that revokes any gift to a beneficiary who contests its validity. The niece files a probate challenge without probable cause. The court upholds the clause and removes the niece from both the gift and the fiduciary appointment.
Francisco Frost, a member of a member-managed LLC, uses company funds to purchase equipment for his separate business. The other members discover the diversion. Frost must account to the LLC for the property and any profits obtained from the transaction.
Finn Fletcher, trustee of a family trust, sells trust real estate to himself at a below-market price. A beneficiary learns of the purchase and sues. The court voids the sale because the transaction involved a conflict between the trustee's fiduciary duty and his personal interest.
After an intestate death, the court appoints Mary as administrator of the estate. She executes a deed conveying estate real property to the heirs to clear record title. The deed confirms the transfer that occurred by operation of law even though no deed from the decedent was required.
A fiduciary relationship arises when one person manifests consent that another shall act on his behalf and subject to his control, and the other consents to act. The resulting relation imposes duties of loyalty and care on the person who agrees to act.
A transaction involving trust property that is affected by a conflict between the trustee's fiduciary and personal interests is voidable by an affected beneficiary unless the transaction was authorized by the trust terms or approved by a court.
A judge must recuse when the judge knows that he or she, individually or as a fiduciary, has an economic interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding.
The duty of loyalty requires a member in a member-managed LLC to account to the company and hold as trustee any property, profit, or benefit derived by the member in the conduct or winding up of the company's activities.
…to corporate trustees. In order that donors and testators of moderately sized trusts may not be denied the service of corporate fiduciaries, the District of Columbia and some thirty states other than New York have permitted pooling small trust estates into one fund for investment administration.[^maj-1] The income, capital…