tip of the month: CPAs Serving as Trustees.

• Position: CAMICO Insurance

CPAs who serve as trustees should adopt a governance process to document they have taken affirmative steps to fulfill their duties of care as a fiduciary, Were a disgruntled beneficiary to claim that you breached your trustee duties, you will be prepared to respond.

Trustee decisions should be made in good faith and according to the trustee's best judgment. To prove that decisions were made in good faith and in their best judgment, prudent trustees annually define why they did what they did and when they did it, review their duties of care and write a memo demonstrating how they fulfilled those duties. Ideally this record will include corroborating evidence for the basis of their decision. This discipline enables the trustee to rebut beneficiary claims that they acted in...