A Failure to CommunicateA Failure to Communicate

Effective communication is as important to the world of trusts and estates as it is in virtually every aspect of human endeavor. It takes on significance both as a legal requirement and as a practical matter. Trustees act as fiduciaries, who, by definition, take on an array of duties universally recognized as the highest level of obligation that the law imposes. In Justice Benjamin Cardozo’s oft-quoted formulation:

A trustee is held to something stricter than the morals of the marketplace. Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior.¹ 

Information-Sharing

A fundamental component of a fiduciary’s array of legal obligations is to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed about the trust e...