Trustee: Personal Liability

In breach of trust and/or breach of fiduciary suits, whether a trustee is personally liable often comes up. Section 456.10-1010, RSMo provides some points of clarification on the matter:

(1) Unless provided otherwise in a contract, a trustee is not personally liable on a contract if the trustee discloses the trustee/fiduciary capacity in the contract.

(2) A trustee is only personally liable for (a) torts committed in the course of administering a trust or for (b) obligations arising from ownership or control of the trust property if the trustee is “personally at fault.”

As to the more vague second situation, the official commentary to the Uniform Trust Code explains that liability is imposed if the trustee was “personally at fault, either intentionally or negligently.”

Contact regarding estate litigation, trusts, breach of trust claims and/or probate.

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