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 video 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

David Fowler Johnson
Managing Shareholder/Fort Worth Office
Winstead
Mr. Johnson maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution... | Read More
Mr. Johnson maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution litigation matters throughout his career. He is the primary author of the Texas Fiduciary Litigator blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting the fiduciary field in Texas. Mr. Johnson's financial institution experience includes (but is not limited to): breach of contract, foreclosure litigation, lender liability, receivership and injunction remedies upon default, non-recourse and other real estate lending, class action, RICO actions, usury, various tort causes of action, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and preference and other related claims raised by receivers.
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Scott E. Rahn
Founder and Managing Partner
RMO
Mr. Rahn represents heirs, beneficiaries, trustees and executors. He utilizes his experience to develop and implement... | Read More
Mr. Rahn represents heirs, beneficiaries, trustees and executors. He utilizes his experience to develop and implement strategies that swiftly and cost-effectively address the financial issues, fiduciary duties and emotional complexities underlying trust contests, estates conflicts and probate litigation.
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