Law Commons^™

Trust Protectors, Agency Costs, And Fiduciary Duty, Stewart E. Sterk

Faculty Articles

First used in conjunction with offshore trusts, trust protectors have begun to appear in domestic trusts as well. In part, the protector appears designed to reduce agency cost problems associated with the trust form. But the emergence of trust protectors raises a new set of agency cost problems: first, do protectors owe any enforceable duties to the trust beneficiaries, or to anyone else; second, how, if at all, do the powers conferred on the trust protector affect the responsibilities of the trustee? Current doctrine has not yet answered these questions. And the answers may differ depending on the purposes for …

Common Law, Common Sense: Fiduciary Standards And Trustee Identity, Melanie B. Leslie

Faculty Articles

The past twenty years have seen significant changes in the law governing trustees' fiduciary duties. Though fiduciary duty law is a common law creation, recent changes are not a result of common-law evolution, but legislative action. The push to codify trust law, including fiduciary duties, has come from a few sources, including academics, who have argued that trust law should be more uniform, and banking institutions, who have pushed for legislation to ease the burdens of trust management.

In some significant respects, legislative changes to fiduciary duties have not improved upon the common law. In fact, a few important statutes …