Fiduciary duties

Fiduciaries are people and businesses that by law owe others a high duty of care when acting on their behalf. Corporate officers are fiduciaries for SHAREHOLDERS; trustees are fiduciaries for TRUST beneficiaries; executors are fiduciaries for estates and heirs; conservators and guardians are fiduciaries for wards. Fiduciaries can be individuals or CORPORATIONs, and sometimes cofiduciaries are both. They owe duties of loyalty, prudent INVESTMENT, disclosure, accounting, and integrity to those whom they benefit. Unless specifically authorized, for example, fiduciaries should not undertake speculative investments with other people’s money. The powers of fiduciaries are controlled by the legal documents creating the fiduciary relationship and by statutory law. Other commonly existing fiduciary relationships include attorneys and their clients, stockbrokers and their customers, and persons acting for others under powers of attorney.