#fiduciary
Legal and tax responsibilities of trustees, executors, personal representatives, and other fiduciaries managing trust and estate assets
The business judgment rule presumes directors acted informed and in good faith — honest mistakes stay protected; fraud, conflicts, and gross negligence don't.
Fiduciary accounting income, not taxable income, sets trust distributions — dividends and rent to the income beneficiary, capital gains to principal.
Miss one of three tests and your trust files Form 1041 as complex — taxed at 37% past $16,000 instead of at your beneficiary rate.
A pet trust sets aside money and names a trustee and caregiver so your animals are cared for after death or incapacity — a will alone cannot do that.
ERISA requires your 401(k) bonded for 10% of plan funds, $1,000 minimum, $500,000 cap, $1M with employer stock. Most bonds cost under $500 a year.
A daily money manager is not a fiduciary until formally appointed — price retainers deliberately, never commingle funds, and log every bill-pay.
The DOL expects certified mail, record checks, beneficiary contact, and free online searches — and IRS Rev. Rul. 2019-19 taxes a 401(k) check never cashed.
An ERISA fidelity bond protects the plan from theft, not you. Fiduciary liability insurance covers 401(k) breach-of-duty claims for $500–$2,500 a year.
Switching 401(k) recordkeepers freezes accounts — ERISA requires a blackout notice 30 to 60 days ahead, or the DOL can assess $173 per participant per day.
A 1% AUM fee costs roughly 24% of a 30-year balance versus 7% at 0.25% — pick a robo, hybrid, or human fiduciary by your business stage, not by price alone.
Target-date funds hold about $4.9 trillion and are the default in 99% of the auto-enrollment 401(k) plans Vanguard tracks. Here is how glide paths, "to" versus "through" designs, and expense ratios shape your retirement balance, plus a 15-minute checkup for savers and the fiduciary duties for owners who sponsor a plan.
When an employee quits before the employer match vests, the unvested dollars land in the plan's forfeiture account. The IRS's proposed rule would give sponsors 12 months after the plan year closes to use them — on plan expenses, on reducing future employer contributions, or by reallocating to participants — and stale multi-year suspense balances are already a standard audit finding.
