AUGUST 2026 | 17 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. trustee is delegating all or most of the duties of the trustee to others, such as by engaging and paying investment advisors, attorneys and accountants, the amount of the fee payable to the trustee may need to be reduced.8 Enforcement of Duty of Loyalty The duty of loyalty has always been one of the most central fiduciary duties a trustee owes to a beneficiary.9 Change: The OUTC codifies the common law rule that a trustee cannot profit from serving as trustee, even if there is no breach of trust in the transaction, as a way to enforce a trustee’s duty of loyalty to the beneficiaries. The addition of 60 O.S. §1609.2 addressed the enforcement of a trustee’s duty of loyalty and provides that “[a] trustee is accountable to an affected beneficiary for any profit made by the trustee arising from the administration of the trustee, even absent a breach of trust.” Within the duty of loyalty, a trustee “should not be allowed to use the trust as a means for personal profit other than for routine compensation earned.”10 The most common situation in which this occurs is when a trustee earns a commission from a third party for a trust-related action. Many trustees may be surprised to learn that this type of transaction is now expressly forbidden and could result in surcharge to the trustee and/or removal as trustee.11 REPORTING Prior to the OUTC, Oklahoma did not impose any proactive obligation to provide information to beneficiaries but relied on statute and case law regarding a trustee’s obligation to respond to a request for information. Under Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 60, §175.23(A), the district court was granted original jurisdiction “to require accounting by trustees; to surcharge trustee; and in its discretion to supervise the administration of trusts.” An action in district court could be brought by a beneficiary in an effort to obtain an accounting from a trustee.12 For trusts not under court supervision, if a beneficiary who was an eligible or permissible distributee did not object within 180 days after being provided a copy of the trustee’s accounting (together with written notice of the discharge provision), the beneficiary was deemed to have approved the accounting, and the trustee was similarly discharged from liability.13 This accounting discharge mechanism, while providing procedural structure, placed a reactive burden on the beneficiary
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