When an executor or trustee is handling money, property, or family decisions after a death, people often assume the process will be careful, neutral, and transparent. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is not.
If you’re worried that an executor is favoring one heir, delaying distributions without explanation, hiding records, overpaying themselves, or selling property in a questionable way, you may be looking at a breach of fiduciary duty claim. The same is true in trust administration when a trustee appears to be acting for their own benefit instead of the beneficiaries’ interests.
This area of law can feel technical fast. Terms like fiduciary, surcharge, self-dealing, accounting, and removal get thrown around early, often before families understand the basics. In this post you’ll learn what fiduciary duty means, how executors and trustees commonly breach it, what courts often look for, what remedies may be available, and why timing and documentation matter so much. For a broader foundation on the core duties involved, it may help to start with this overview of the loyalty, prudence, conflict, and surcharge issues that often drive these disputes.
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A fiduciary duty is a legal obligation to act in the interests of another person when managing money, property, or affairs entrusted to you. In the estate and trust context, executors, personal representatives, and trustees are fiduciaries. Courts generally expect them to act with loyalty, care, good faith, and fairness rather than for personal advantage.
The Legal Information Institute at Cornell explains that trustees owe duties of care, loyalty, good faith, and impartiality, including avoiding self-dealing and taking the interests of all beneficiaries into account when there is more than one beneficiary (Cornell Law School, Wex). The American Bar Association similarly describes trustees’ duties under the Uniform Trust Code as including loyalty, impartiality, prudent administration, recordkeeping, protecting trust property, and informing beneficiaries (American Bar Association).
In estate administration, the same basic idea applies even though the label may be “executor” or “personal representative” instead of trustee. The ABA notes that executors and trustees are responsible for valuing assets, protecting property, handling debts and taxes, keeping records, and communicating with beneficiaries, and that a fiduciary can face personal liability for mishandling estate or trust assets (American Bar Association).
Usually, the people with standing are those whose interests are directly affected by the administration. That may include:
Exactly who may sue depends on state law and the type of administration involved. Probate matters are mostly handled in state courts, not federal court, which matters because procedure and remedies often vary from one state to another. That state-court focus is significant in practical terms: the National Center for State Courts reports that 98% of all cases are handled in state courts, and about 70 million cases were filed in state courts in 2024 (National Center for State Courts). In other words, estate and trust disputes are usually governed by local statutes, local probate rules, and local judges’ expectations.
The exact list depends on the governing document and state law, but these duties come up again and again.