Ohio Code 5815.25 – Administrative duties and responsibilities of trust; exclusion of fiduciaries
(A) As used in this section, “fiduciary” means a trustee under any testamentary, inter vivos, or other trust, an executor or administrator, or any other person who is acting in a fiduciary capacity for any person, trust, or estate.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 5815.25
- Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
- Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(B) If an instrument or other applicable written agreement describes, appoints, or directs a fiduciary to handle only the administrative duties and responsibilities of a trust, that administrative fiduciary shall not have any duties, responsibilities, or liabilities to the trust beneficiaries or to other persons interested in a trust except for those administrative duties and responsibilities specifically described in the instrument or written agreement. The administrative duties and responsibilities of a trust under this division may include any of the following:
(1) Opening and maintaining bank, brokerage, financial, or other custodial accounts to receive trust income or contributions and from which trust expenditures, bills, and distributions may be disbursed;
(2) Maintaining and handling trust records, reports, correspondence, or communications;
(3) Maintaining an office for trust business;
(4) Filing any trust tax returns;
(5) Employing agents in connection with the fiduciary’s administrative duties;
(6) Taking custody of or storing trust property;
(7) Any other similar administrative duties for the trust.
(C) If an instrument under which a fiduciary acts reserves to the grantor, or vests in an advisory or investment committee or in one or more other persons, including one or more fiduciaries, to the exclusion of the fiduciary or of one or more of several fiduciaries, any power, including, but not limited to, the authority to direct the acquisition, disposition, or retention of any investment or the power to authorize any act that an excluded fiduciary may propose, any excluded fiduciary is not liable, either individually or as a fiduciary, for either of the following:
(1) Any loss that results from compliance with an authorized direction of the grantor, committee, person, or persons;
(2) Any loss that results from a failure to take any action proposed by an excluded fiduciary that requires a prior authorization of the grantor, committee, person, or persons if that excluded fiduciary timely sought but failed to obtain that authorization.
(D) Any administrative fiduciary as described in division (B) of this section or any excluded fiduciary as described in division (C) of this section is relieved from any obligation to perform investment reviews and make recommendations with respect to any investments to the extent the grantor, an advisory or investment committee, or one or more other persons have authority to direct the acquisition, disposition, or retention of any investment.
(E) This section does not apply to the extent that the instrument under which an administrative fiduciary as described in division (B) of this section or an excluded fiduciary as described in division (C) of this section contains provisions that are inconsistent with this section.