Fiduciary Law Trends 2016Fiduciary Law Trends 2016

Awareness of current events helps us spot and be better prepared for future developments. Sometimes looking backward can improve our view forward. The following noteworthy cases from 2015 highlight trends we see evolving in the fiduciary field.

Administration 

Ongoing administration of probate estates and trusts is the core of the fiduciary services industry. These cases clarify a trustee’s day-to-day responsibilities after the trust is drafted and its terms are put into action.

A trustee must resist pressure to take direction from a client who isn’t a power holder. In Engle v. Regions Bank,¹ the defendant trustee made distributions to the non-trustee, non-beneficiary mother of minor trust beneficiaries, such that the trust was exhausted i...