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2018 Georgia Code 53-12-340 | Car Wreck Lawyer

Link to State of Georgia Official Statute 2018 Georgia Code Annotated (sourced from legal.resource.org)
O.C.G.A. 53-12-340 Case Law from Google Scholar Amendments to OCGA 53-12-340

TITLE 53 WILLS, TRUSTS, AND ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES

Section 12. (Revised Trust Code of 2010) Trusts, 53-12-1 through 53-12-506.

ARTICLE 16 TRUST INVESTMENTS

53-12-340. Investment standard.

  1. In investing and managing trust property, a trustee shall exercise the judgment and care under the circumstances then prevailing of a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters, considering the purposes, provisions, and distribution requirements of the trust.
  2. Among the factors that a trustee shall consider in investing and managing trust assets are such of the following as are relevant to the trust or its beneficiaries:
    1. General economic conditions;
    2. The possible effect of inflation or deflation;
    3. Anticipated tax consequences;
    4. The attributes of the portfolio,
    5. The expected return from income and appreciation;
    6. Needs for liquidity, regularity of income, and preservation or appreciation of capital;
    7. An asset's special relationship or special value, if any, to the purposes of the trust or to one or more of the beneficiaries or to the settlor;
    8. The anticipated duration of the trust; and
    9. Any special circumstances.
  3. Any determination of liability for investment performance shall consider not only the performance of a particular investment but also the performance of the portfolio as a whole and as a part of an overall investment strategy having risk and return objectives reasonably suited to the trust.
  4. A trustee who has special investment skills or expertise shall have a duty to use those special skills or expertise. A trustee who is named trustee in reliance upon such trustee's representation that such trustee has special investment skills or expertise shall be held liable for failure to make use of such degree of skill or expertise.
  5. A trustee may invest in any kind of property or type of investment consistent with the standards of this article.
  6. A trustee that is a bank or trust company shall not be precluded from acquiring and retaining the securities of or other interests in an investment company or investment trust because the bank or trust company or an affiliate provides services to the investment company or investment trust as investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, registrar, sponsor, distributor, manager, or otherwise and receives compensation for such services.

(Code 1981, §53-12-340, enacted by Ga. L. 2010, p. 579, § 1/SB 131.)

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Editor's notes.

- In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under former O.C.G.A. § 53-12-287 of the 1991 Trust Act are included in the annotations for this Code section.

Trustee breached fiduciary duties.

- Intermediate court erred in reversing a judgment entered for the beneficiaries in their suit against a trustee as the trustee should have been aware of the potential estate tax consequences of its investment decisions and should have invested in accordance with the decedent's instructions memorialized in a memorandum written by a trust officer; notwithstanding the absence of specific statutory requirements to consider tax consequences, the trustee should have been aware of the consequences of not following the decedent's instructions and of investing as the trustee did. Namik v. Wachovia Bank of Ga., 279 Ga. 250, 612 S.E.2d 270 (2005) (decided under former O.C.G.A. § 53-12-287).

Breach of trust properly found.

- Trial court correctly ruled that a trustee breached the trustee's duty to faithfully administer a marital trust, and the trustee's alleged reliance on professional advice would not shield the trustee from potential liability for such breach of trust because under the plain language of the will, the trustee overreached the nar- rowly-tailored power to encroach upon the principal of the trust only for purposes related to the widow's welfare, not for a gift to a university. Hasty v. Castleberry, 293 Ga. 727, 749 S.E.2d 676 (2013).

Cited in Ludwig v. Ludwig, 281 Ga. 724, 642 S.E.2d 638 (2007).

Cases Citing Georgia Code 53-12-340 From Courtlistener.com

Total Results: 1

Hasty v. Castleberry

Court: Supreme Court of Georgia | Date Filed: 2013-10-07

Citation: 293 Ga. 727, 749 S.E.2d 676, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 3065, 2013 WL 5508555, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 788

Snippet: actually occurred. Id. See also, e.g., OCGA § 53-12-340 (a) (“In investing and managing trust property