Is Your Palm Beach Trustee on the Hook for that Bad Money Decisions?

Trustees make important decisions everyday on what is the best financial decisions for the sake of beneficiaries of a family trust. Who’s investing those millions that grandmother left in that Boca Raton living trust anyway?  These guys are not fortune tellers and trustees do make mistakes  – but when they do, who has to pay for it? Is a Palm Beach trustee on the hook for that bad investment? Check the terms of your trust document Delray Beach, and remember not all bad decisions create liability. 

What is a Florida trustee’s duties to invest trust money?

• Trustees have a duty of prudence which means they can not make overly risky investments, but that does not mean investments fail.
• Who would have seen Pepsi Blue going down? Probably the same people that saw Crocs as a billion dollar idea. Go figure.
• Usually, a trustee Palm Beach may not be liable absent some or of bad faith, gross negligence or fraud.
• How can you prove fraud by a trustee Palm Beach Gardens in Palm Beach Probate Court?
• The duty of the trustee is already established, but you have to prove that they breached that duty by making that bad investment in Boynton Beach! How do you prove it ? Is it common sense or something more?
• And what about all this talk about trustees Ft. Lauderdale investing prudently?  Florida has a prudent investor rule, after all: Chapter 518.11, right?

How do I know if my trustee Lake Worth has been imprudent or prudent?

• Florida Third District Court of Appeal deals with the issue of whether or not a bad situation develops liability for a school board in the case of Miami Dade School Board v. Nelly Martinez Oller, decided April 8, 2015 No. 3D13-1394. Want to check out the entire case click here.
• Mother sues the school board after her son was injured by a book thrown at him by another student with a disciplinary record, on the grounds that the school should have done a better job to supervise the incident.
• The Court ultimately held that the teacher did nothing wrong and that it was thus the plaintiff’s job to show the school itself had something wrong, which they could not and they lost the appeal. Do you think the result is fair?
• What about the injured kid (his eye socket was fractured) is he just stuck paying those bills?

What does this have to do with your Boca Raton Probate Dispute? OR that family trust in Boynton Beach?

1. Not every mistake is actionable under Florida law….. not every act by a trustee Delray Beach means the trustee must pay back money.
2. There can be no liability for a trustee without a duty owed, a duty broken and damages.
3. How does a trust beneficiary know if your trustee has committed a breach of trust?
4. Even if the trustee was negligent be prepared to prove it. How do you do that?