New DilemmasNew Dilemmas

Sharon L. Klein, vice president and trust counsel, Fiduciary Trust Company International, New Yor

Traditionally, there has been tremendous tension between the competing interests of a trust's income and remainder beneficiaries. Investing pursuant to the Uniform Prudent Investor Act of 1994 (UPIA), which allows fiduciaries to invest for total return under modern portfolio theory, actually intensified this inherent conflict. Under the UPIA, trustees are permitted to invest in a manner that produces the best overall return, without distinguishing between principal and income. However, trustees were faced with the dilemma of whether they should invest for principal growth, which ultimately inures to the benefit of the remainder beneficiaries,...