Trustee's Obligation to Inform Beneficiaries: Avoiding Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims
Reconciling Discrepancies Between Trust Document and State Law, Navigating State Statutes and UTC Provisions
Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A
This CLE webinar will provide estate planning counsel and advisers with a thorough and practical guide to navigating trustees' duties to inform beneficiaries and report trust existence and performance. The panel will address the essential obligations that advisers to fiduciaries need to grasp and meet to avoid liability and defend against beneficiary claims.
Outline
- The trustee's duty to inform and the beneficiary's right to information
- At common law
- Under the Uniform Trust Code
- The trustee's duty to account and responding to requests for accountings
- Silent or quiet trusts
- Silencing a noisy trust
- Creating a silent trust from scratch
- Avoiding claims for breach of the fiduciary duty to inform
Benefits
The panel will review these and other relevant issues:
- What disclosures are trustees almost always required to make to beneficiaries?
- What are the Uniform Trust Code provisions for required disclosures?
- What trust document provisions limiting a trustee's duty to disclose and report will be honored in most common law or non-UTC jurisdictions? Under the UTC?
- How can a trustee utilize voluntary disclosures for additional protection against breach of fiduciary duty claims for failure to report?
Faculty

Jared R. Cloud
Partner
McDermott Will & Emery
Mr. Cloud counsels clients on estate, trust and family business disputes. He represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries... | Read More
Mr. Cloud counsels clients on estate, trust and family business disputes. He represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in litigation before courts in numerous jurisdictions. He represents clients in trust litigation, including trust construction, contested accountings, trust reformation and actions for breach of fiduciary duty; estate litigation, including will contests, probate claims and will construction; family business disputes, including succession disputes, separation of interests and buyout of minority stakeholders outside of litigation, as well as litigation of derivative actions, oppression claims by minority shareholders and partnership accountings; and contested guardianship matters, including disputes over competence and the appointment of an appropriate guardian.
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Nicole K. Mann
Partner
McDermott Will & Emery
Ms. Mann focuses her practice on all aspects of tax and estate planning, estate and trust administration and... | Read More
Ms. Mann focuses her practice on all aspects of tax and estate planning, estate and trust administration and family business planning. She also has considerable experience in estate, trust and tax litigation involving disputes between and among family members, fiduciaries and beneficiaries.
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Jane Zhao, CPA
Attorney
McDermott Will & Emery
Ms. Zhao focuses her practice on private client matters.
| Read MoreMs. Zhao focuses her practice on private client matters.
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