Working together · 5 min read
The delegation frame
§736.0807 permits delegating duties and powers that a prudent trustee of comparable skills could properly delegate under the circumstances. The trustee's own duties concentrate into three verbs: reasonable care, skill, and caution in SELECTING the agent, ESTABLISHING the scope and terms of the delegation consistent with the trust's purposes, and periodically REVIEWING the agent's actions to monitor performance and compliance.
The statute completes the loop on both sides: an agent accepting a delegation owes reasonable care to comply with its terms and submits to Florida jurisdiction, and a trustee who complies with the section's requirements is generally not liable to beneficiaries for the agent's decisions within the delegation.
What tends to stay with the trustee
Delegation covers functions, not the office. The decisions that define the trusteeship — whether and when to distribute under the trust's standards, the choices the instrument commits to the trustee personally, the duty to keep beneficiaries informed — remain trustee work even with a full professional bench. Many trustees think of professionals as instruments of prudent administration under §736.0804 rather than substitutes for it.
Engagement letters, defined scopes, and periodic written reviews are the everyday shape of the statute's selecting-instructing-monitoring language. Which functions are prudent to delegate for a particular trust, and on what terms, is a fact-specific question a licensed Florida attorney or investment professional can evaluate.
Common questions
May a Florida trustee delegate investment management?
§736.0807 permits delegating investment and management functions a comparably skilled prudent trustee could properly delegate — with the statute's care in selection, scoping, and periodic review.
Is a trustee liable for a properly selected agent's decisions?
The statute provides that a trustee who complies with its requirements is generally not liable to beneficiaries for the agent's decisions or actions within the delegation.
Do the trust's beneficiaries deal with the agent or the trustee?
The information and accounting duties of §736.0813 remain the trustee's; agents perform delegated functions while the trustee remains the beneficiaries' fiduciary counterpart.
Ask about this topic
These pre-written questions open the guided assistant with the question filled in — you review it and press send yourself. The assistant explains Florida law generally with cited sources; it does not give advice about your situation, and your question allowance applies.
Related reading
The Learning Center is general information about Florida law — not legal advice, and not a substitute for advice from a licensed Florida attorney about your specific facts. TrusteeClear is software, not a law firm.
Frequently asked questions
- May a Florida trustee delegate investment management?
- §736.0807 permits delegating investment and management functions a comparably skilled prudent trustee could properly delegate — with the statute's care in selection, scoping, and periodic review.
- Is a trustee liable for a properly selected agent's decisions?
- The statute provides that a trustee who complies with its requirements is generally not liable to beneficiaries for the agent's decisions or actions within the delegation.
- Do the trust's beneficiaries deal with the agent or the trustee?
- The information and accounting duties of §736.0813 remain the trustee's; agents perform delegated functions while the trustee remains the beneficiaries' fiduciary counterpart.
General information about Florida law, not legal advice.