Glossary Term
Fiduciary Duty
Definition
The highest legal duty of trust, requiring a person who acts on another's behalf — like a partner, trustee, or executor — to act with loyalty and in the other's best interest, not their own.
Hypothetical
An executor quietly sells estate land to himself at a discount. Because he owes a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries, that self-dealing breaches his duty and can be undone.