Roseville, CA estate planning & probate attorney R. Keenan Davis talks about the role of a trustee in a trust. He notes that the law regulates relationships between individuals in a contract. In a typical contractual negotiation, each party is not required to disclose all of their reasoning or strategic considerations to the other. However, when serving as a trustee, the standard changes significantly. A trustee must act with the highest level of good faith and fair dealing toward the beneficiaries of the trust. This obligation, commonly referred to as a fiduciary duty, embodies the principle of “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

He outlines that a trustee’s responsibilities generally fall into three primary activities: gathering the trust’s assets, paying its liabilities, and making distributions to beneficiaries. Beyond these core tasks, a trust may include more detailed and complex instructions, such as managing properties or other assets, which can range from relatively straightforward to highly involved, depending on the size and complexity of the estate. Regardless of the scope of duties, he emphasizes that the fiduciary duty—the obligation of utmost good faith and fair dealing—remains the foundational principle guiding all trustee actions.