Law Commons^™

Equity And Trusts, Hang Wu Tang, Yong Seng Tay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Jocelyn Rita d/o Lawrence Stanley v Tan Gark Chong1 (“Jocelyn Rita v Tan Gark Chong”) is an example of an attempt to set aside a trust deed in the wake of BOM v BOK. 2 This case takes place in the context of a husband and wife relationship.

Alpha Duties: The Search For Excess Returns And Appropriate Fiduciary Duties, Ian Ayres, Edward Fox

Articles

Modern finance theory and investment practice have shifted toward “passive investing.” The current consensus is that most savers should invest in mutual funds or ETFs that are (i) well-diversified, (ii) low-cost, and (iii) expose their portfolios to age-appropriate stock market risk. The law governing trustees, investment advisers, broker–dealers, 401(k) plan managers, and other investment fiduciaries has evolved to push them gently toward this consensus. But these laws still provide broad scope for fiduciaries to recommend that clients invest instead in specific assets that they believe will produce “alpha” by outperforming the market. Seeking alpha comes at a cost, however, in …

Fiduciary Principles In Bankruptcy And Insolvency, John A. E. Pottow

Book Chapters

This chapter examines fiduciary duties in bankruptcy and insolvency, focusing on the bankruptcy trustee’s duties, which are triggered by virtue of appointment in a case. It first provides a background on bankruptcy law in order to elucidate the doctrines and rules affecting fiduciary responsibilities in bankruptcy, citing a number of relevant provisions in the Bankruptcy Code. It then considers the fiduciary, non-fiduciary, and anti-fiduciary obligations of the trustee under the Bankruptcy Code before discussing the fiduciary duties of care and loyalty. In particular, it highlights bankruptcy-related issues raised by the duty of loyalty with respect to secured creditors, priority unsecured …

The Rise Of Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

The law that defines and regulates fiduciary relationships appears in many legal areas, such as family law, surrogate decision-making, international law, agency law, employment law, pension law, remedies rules, banking law, financial institutions' regulation, corporate law, charities law not for profit organizations law, and the law concerning medical services.

Fiduciary relationships, and the concepts on which they are grounded, appear not only in the law. They appear in other areas of knowledge: economics, psychology; moral norms and pluralism. Fiduciary law has a very long history. It was recognized in Roman law and the British common law and appeared decades ago …

Trusting Trust, Deborah Gordon

Deborah S Gordon

What is a trustee and how should we understand her duties? The existing literature typically identifies the trustee in the role of agent, partner or contracting party. This Article re-envisions the trustee in the role of the legal system’s most trusted type of decision-maker: the common law judge. Rather than argue for a top-down recreation of the trustee’s role, this Article contends that valuable lessons can be learned by reconceptualizing how trustees, settlors, and beneficiaries view themselves and each other. Using traditional literature about great judging as a touchstone, the Article argues that those qualities essential to principled adjudication — …

Shakespeare In The Classroom: How An Annual Student Production Of King Lear Adds Dimension To Teaching Trusts And Estates, Karen E. Boxx

Articles

I always begin the first day of my Trusts and Estates course by discussing the reasons for taking the class. While I note that some students may take the class to help in passing the bar exam or because family members have already asked them to draft wills, my list of reasons instead include: (1) exposure to the fiduciary relationship; (2) the real life ethical dilemmas faced by the lawyers; (3) learning to read and interpret state statutes; and (4) consideration of how law responds to societal changes and governs human relationships. This last reason is critical: Trusts and Estates …

Fiduciary Duties And Exculpatory Clauses: Clash Of The Titans Or Cozy Bedfellows, Louise Lark Hill

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Centuries ago, when land represented the majority of wealth, the trust was used primarily for holding and transferring real property. As the dominant form of wealth moved away from family land, the trust evolved into a device for managing financial assets. With this transformation came the use of exculpatory clauses by both amateur and professional trustees, providing an avenue for these fiduciaries to escape liability for designated acts. With the use of exculpatory provisions, discussion abounded about whether fiduciary duties were mandatory or subject to modification. The latter view eventually prevailed, with the majority of jurisdictions viewing fiduciary duties as …

Fiduciary Duties And Exculpatory Clauses: Clash Of The Titans Or Cozy Bedfellows?, Louise Hill

Louise L Hill

Centuries ago, when land represented the majority of wealth, the trust was used primarily for holding and transferring real property. As the dominant form of wealth moved away from family land, the trust evolved into a device for managing financial assets. With this transformation came the use of exculpatory clauses by both amateur and professional trustees, providing an avenue for these fiduciaries to escape liability for designated acts. With the use of exculpatory provisions, discussion abounded about whether fiduciary duties were mandatory or subject to modification. The latter view eventually prevailed, with the majority of jurisdictions viewing fiduciary duties as …

Art Deaccessions And The Limits Of Fiduciary Duty, Sue Chen

Duke Law Student Papers Series

Art deaccessions prompt lawsuits against museums, and some commentators advocate using the stricter trust standard of care, instead of the prevailing corporate standard (business judgment rule), to evaluate the conduct of non‑profit museum boards. This Article explores the consequences of adopting the trust standard by applying it to previously unavailable deaccession policies of prominent art museums. It finds that so long as museum boards adhere to these policies, their decisions would satisfy the trust standard. This outcome illustrates an important limitation of fiduciary law: the trust standard evaluates procedural care but cannot assess deaccessions on their merits. Yet this limitation, …

Punitive Surcharges Against Disloyal Fiduciaries--Is Rothko Right?, Richard V. Wellman

Michigan Law Review

This Article criticizes the award of a penalty surcharge in the name of appreciation damages. Contrary to the statements in the Rothko opinions, neither precedent nor treatises offers clear support for the shocking awards made against Rothko's disloyal executors. Furthermore, even if appreciation damages were to be viewed, against the thesis here advanced, as an appropriate remedy for some kinds of fiduciary breach, the measure is inappropriate for cases which, like Rothko, involve hidden conflicts of interest. This is so because the threat of severe penalties in hidden-conflict cases adds unacceptable legal costs to honest administrations-costs that cannot be …

The Classification Of Some Powers Of Appointment, Joseph Gold

Michigan Law Review

Many problems involving powers of appointment depend for their solution on the classification of the power in question as general or special. It is now clearly established in English law and in most American jurisdictions that this classification depends on the persons to whom an appointment may be made. The fact that the power is exercisable on a contingency or in a specified manner does not affect the character of the power. Nor is it relevant for the purpose of classification that the power permits the appointment of a limited interest only. A general power is usually said to be …

Banks And Banking - Misappropriation Of Trust Funds - Liability Of Bank

Michigan Law Review

Committee for incompetent deposited checks payable to him as such committee in the defendant bank to the credit of his individual account. The committee's account was entirely dissipated, but, so far as the facts appear in the opinion, the defendant bank at no time had any knowledge of the use to which the money was put. The committee was removed and the substituted committee sued the defendant bank for aiding the original committee in the diversion of the funds. Held, that it was the duty of the defendant bank to inquire whether the committee had authority to deposit the …

Trusts-Duty Of The Trustee To Sell Stock In A Falling Market

Michigan Law Review

Securities were turned over to defendant as trustee, among which were issues of common stock in two sugar companies, under the direction that the trustees were authorized to continue all investments of the testator without any personal liability in doing so. In the executor's accounting the stocks were valued per share at $22 and $12.25 respectively. In the present accounting, instituted by the beneficiary on becoming entitled to the corpus of the trust estate, the stocks had fallen to $7 and $.50 respectively. The trust company was experienced in the handling of securities and its officers were advised not to …

An Inroad Upon Fiduciary Integrity, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

It is a principle universally recognized throughout our system of law, that no person shall be permitted to occupy a position of trust and confidence who at the same time is clearly subject to influences hostile to a faithful performance of his trust. There is a rule as old as Christianity, and it has been incorporated into our law from the earliest times, that "no man shall serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other." Fiduciary relations can rest upon no foundation but …