Trustees and other fiduciaries owe an undivided duty of loyalty to those they serve. The law is unusually strict here: a trustee cannot let personal interest collide with that duty, cannot profit from the position, and cannot freely deal with trust property or with a beneficiary's interest. For a solicitor advising trustees, beneficiaries, or anyone in a position of trust, knowing where these lines fall — and what happens when they are crossed — is everyday, practical work.
This lesson builds the picture step by step:
- Fiduciary Duties and the No-Conflict Rule — the core duties of loyalty: the no-conflict and no-profit rules, and who they bind.
- The Self-Dealing Rule — why a trustee on both sides of a deal makes it voidable, and who can challenge it.
- Displacing the Self-Dealing Rule — the four routes by which such a transaction can be authorised.
- The Fair-Dealing Rule — buying a beneficiary's interest, and the trustee's burden to prove fairness.
- The No-Profit Rule — the famously strict bar on unauthorised gains made through the position.
- Trustee Remuneration — why trustees serve unpaid by default, and the exceptions that allow payment.
- Remedies and Bars to Rescission — the remedies available, and the four bars that can shut them out.