Prudent administration: the standard behind every trustee decision

Care of the property itself

§736.0809 provides that a trustee take reasonable steps to take control of and protect the trust property. In practice that is the statutory home of the unglamorous early work — locating assets, securing the house, keeping insurance in force, retitling accounts into the trustee's fiduciary capacity.

§736.0810 adds recordkeeping: a trustee keeps clear, distinct, and accurate records of the administration, and keeps trust property separate from the trustee's own — the anti-commingling rule that underlies fiduciary accounting.

Investments: the prudent-investor frame

For invested assets, Florida's prudent-investor rule (chapter 518, applied to trustees through the Trust Code) evaluates decisions at the portfolio level, in light of the trust's purposes and distribution needs, rather than judging each asset in isolation. Diversification, suitability, and the timeline for reviewing inherited holdings are all fact-specific — the classic territory where trustees weigh professional investment and legal input.

Skills, and hired help

§736.0806 provides that a trustee with special skills or expertise use them. The code equally contemplates hiring: agents may be employed, and §736.0807 governs delegating investment and management functions with care in selecting, instructing, and monitoring the agent. Prudence, in other words, includes knowing what to hand to professionals — while the responsibility framework of the code continues to apply.

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