AI-assisted research summary: A bank acting as fiduciary gets broad fiduciary and investment powers, must use prudent care, and may be exempt from producing certain receipts and cancelled checks in some court accountings.
Unless otherwise expressly provided by statute, a bank acting as a fiduciary shall have, alone or with others, all of the rights, powers, privileges and immunities, and be subject to the same liabilities and duties as an individual fiduciary under like circumstances. The fiduciary powers include, but are not limited to, the power to act as: Fiduciary as defined in § 35-2-102; Custodian of property; Agent or attorney-in-fact; Registrar or transfer agent of securities; Fiscal agent or any political entity, public body, corporation, unincorporated association or individual; Investment advisor; Insurer of titles to, mortgages on, and other interests in any real estate; and Guarantor of the payment of bonds owned by other persons. A bank acting as fiduciary shall have the same investment powers as an individual fiduciary under like circumstances and other investment powers that are provided by law. In exercising the powers, a bank shall, unless otherwise authorized by law or by the instrument creating the relationship, exercise the judgment and care, under the circumstances then prevailing, or as related to the specific purposes for which the fiduciary relationship was created, that persons of prudence, discretion, and intelligence exercise in the management of their own affairs under like circumstances. Within the limitation of the foregoing standard, a bank, as fiduciary, is authorized to acquire and retain interests in every kind of property, real, personal or mixed, and every kind of investment, specifically including, but not by way of limitation, bonds, debentures, and other corporate and governmental obligations, insurance policies, stocks, rights, warrants, and securities of any open or closed-end management fund that persons of prudence, discretion, and intelligence acquire for their own account; and within the limitations of the same foregoing standard, the bank may retain property properly acquired, without limitation as to time and without regard to its suitability for original purchase. A bank, acting as fiduciary in any capacity for which an annual or periodic court accounting is required, shall not be required to exhibit to the court or the clerk thereof the originals or copies of receipts and cancelled checks for disbursements or distributions made by the fiduciary to support the accounting; provided, that the accounting consists of the bank's computer prepared statements showing all income and principal transactions for the accounting period, but the court may require that receipts and cancelled checks be exhibited for the final distribution of assets on termination or transfer of the account to a successor.