Sitkoff to Chair Committee on Divided Trusteeship

Robert H. Sitkoff, the John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has been named Chair of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) drafting committee for an Act on Divided Trusteeship.

The problem of a divided trusteeship stems from the increasingly common practice in estate planning to name a corporate trustee that is given custody of trust property, but with one or more of the investment, distribution, or administration functions of a trusteeship given to a person(s) who is not lawfully designated as a trustee.  Thus, uncertainty remains regarding the fiduciary status of nontrustees who have control or potential control over a function of trusteeship and about the fiduciary responsibility of trustees with regard to actions taken by such nontrustees.  The Drafting Committee on Divided Trusteeship will draft legislation addressing these questions and also outline compatible amendments to existing uniform trust and estate acts. 

As Chair, Sitkoff will oversee the work of the drafting committee, which includes more than a dozen Uniform Law Commissioners.  Sitkoff is an expert in wills, trusts, estates and fiduciary administration and has published numerous works in in leading scholarly journals.  Moreover, Sitkoff is also an active participant in trusts and estates law reform, serving under Massachusetts gubernational appointment as a Uniform Law Commissioner. 

See Sitkoff Named Chair of Drafting Committee for Act on Divided Trusteeship, Harvard Law Today, Sept. 19, 2014.