If you are investing money for another in Florida, you are a fiduciary and subject to Florida’s Prudent Investor rule. If you are a Florida Trustee or a Personal Representative of a Florida estate: listen up! You too, have investment obligations which you may not be adhering to. You can learn a lot about investments from a recent New York Times article, wwww.nytimes.com, which may help your tenure as PR or executor.
- Check out the Business Section of Sunday’s, July 20th, 2014, New York Times.
- A great article about investing in index funds
- The investing article talks about a recent study and whether professional money managers can beat the broader markets with regularity
As a Trustee, Is it OK to Invest in Index Funds?
- The NY Times article suggests, or at least questions, whether it’s better to simply invest in index funds rather than actively managed funds.
- One reason is that so few money managers consistently beat the broader markets: the indexes
- Why fight the index? some may think
- Embrace it !
- Go “active passive” where you actively enter, or exit, a particular “market” by purchasing, or selling index funds (baskets of stocks, rather than individual stocks)
Question: But are index funds ok for trusts and estates?
- Answer: Yes ! But ask your estate & trust administrator, or, better yet, a Palm Beach probate litigation law firm, first. They may have some insight which will help you and your beneficiaries.
- Ask them about prudent investing under Section 518.11 and 518.12 of the Florida Statutes. You can read the statute for free online.
- You just may be surprised what you hear !