Posted by Jim on May 30, 2003 at 24:28:21:
no is the answer…
trustee ? - Posted by dee
Posted by dee on April 26, 2003 at 18:29:14:
When you are a trustee for some one else and they have the home in your name as the trust will you the trustee be liable if something go wrong.
Re: trustee ? - Posted by John Merchant
Posted by John Merchant on May 30, 2003 at 14:26:26:
To Jim’s answer I’d only add this:
You surely could or would be liable to trust beneficiaries if you, as trustee, stole, embezzled, or through your negligence or gross mis-management, cost the trust money…unless the trust had exculpatory clauses built into it (which any knowledgeable trustee is going to insist upon)to the effect that trustee WON’T be personally liable for any losses in trust res/assets that might occur because of trustee’s selection of investments, or errors, or negligence, etc.
I’ve seen several whole pages of such exculpatory clauses and releases written into bank trust documents, which of course have been prepared by the bank’s lawyer, so no bank trustee is going to get nailed through their poor investments or mis-management, without some really exceptionally strong factual evidence that the bank has really been bad to the point of almost criminal.
There was a Seattle case several years ago where this actually happened: Bank, as Trustee, sold an extremely valuable downtown Seattle city block at a giveaway price to one of bank’s good customers, to the loss of the trust beneficiaries.
But, WA Supreme Court, to their everlasting credit, found the trustee bank WAS liable to those bens, and had to pay the bens for the bank’s stupid mis-management. So trustee can be nailed, but it’s rare, as the pro trustee companies really work hard to prevent such things.