South Dakota Codified Laws

S.D. Codified Laws § 55-2-2 (2026)

Trustee not to use property for his own benefit--Profit of trustee from use of property, extent of liability.

✓ current as of May 2026

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55-2-2. Trustee not to use property for his own benefit--Profit of trustee from use of property, extent of liability.

A trustee may not in any manner use or deal with the trust property for his own profit or for any other purpose unconnected with the trust.

If he does so, he may, at the option of the beneficiary, be required to account for all profits thereby made or to pay the value of the use of the trust property, and if he has disposed thereof, to replace it with its fruits or to account for its proceeds with interest.

Source: SDC 1939, § 59.0107.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1994–2025 · leading case: Hein v. Zoss, 2016 SD 73 (S.D. 2016).

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Hein v. Zoss, 2016 SD 73 (S.D. 2016). · cites it 2× “SDCL 55-2-2 additionally prohibits a fiduciary from “us[ing] or deal[ing] with the trust property for his own profit or for any other purpose unconnected with the trust.”

Matter of Est. of Smith, 520 N.W.2d 80 (S.D. 1994). · cites it 4× “3 Although the award of prejudgment interest was not an abuse of discretion because the damages were readily ascertainable, the trial court should have awarded the interest pursuant to SDCL 21-1-11 4 rather than SDCL 55-2-2. SDCL 55-2-2 addresses the duties and liabilities of…”

Ward v. Lange, 1996 SD 113 (S.D. 1996). “See SDCL 55-2-2. A personal representative is obligated to carry out many duties during the probate of an estate.”

In Re the Est. of Stevenson, 2000 SD 24 (S.D. 2000). “” SDCL 55-2-2. Thus, “a fiduciary must act with utmost good faith and avoid any act of self-dealing that places h[er] personal interest in conflict with h[er] obligations to the beneficiaries.”

Langbehn v. Langbehn, 2025 S.D. 11 (S.D. 2025). “2d at 529 ; see also SDCL 55-2-2 (“A trustee may not in any manner use or deal with the trust property for his own profit or for any other purpose unconnected with the trust.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.