New Jersey Statutes 3B:14-37. Protection of persons assisting or dealing with fiduciary
Terms Used In New Jersey Statutes 3B:14-37
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Fiduciary: includes executors, general administrators of an intestate estate, administrators with the will annexed, substituted administrators, substituted administrators with the will annexed, guardians, substituted guardians, trustees, substituted trustees and, unless restricted by the subject or context, temporary administrators, administrators pendente lite, administrators ad prosequendum, administrators ad litem and other limited fiduciaries. See New Jersey Statutes 3B:1-1
- person: includes corporations, companies, associations, societies, firms, partnerships and joint stock companies as well as individuals, unless restricted by the context to an individual as distinguished from a corporate entity or specifically restricted to one or some of the above enumerated synonyms and, when used to designate the owner of property which may be the subject of an offense, includes this State, the United States, any other State of the United States as defined infra and any foreign country or government lawfully owning or possessing property within this State. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
a. A person other than a beneficiary who in good faith either assists a fiduciary or deals with him for value is protected as if the fiduciary properly exercised his power.
b. The fact that a person knowingly deals with a fiduciary does not alone require the person to inquire into the existence of a power or the propriety of its exercise.
c. Except as to real property specifically devised by will, no provision in any will, trust or order of court purporting to limit the power of a fiduciary is effective except as to persons with actual knowledge thereof.
d. A person who in good faith pays, transfers or delivers to a fiduciary money or other property is not responsible for the proper application thereof by the fiduciary; and any right or title acquired from the fiduciary in consideration of the payment, transfer or delivery is not invalid in consequence of a misapplication by the fiduciary.
e. A person other than a beneficiary who in good faith assists a former trustee, or who in good faith and for value deals with a former trustee, without knowledge that the trusteeship has terminated is protected from liability as if the former trustee were still a trustee.
f. The protection here expressed extends to instances in which some procedural irregularity or jurisdictional defect occurred in proceedings leading to the issuance of letters, including a case in which the alleged decedent is found to be alive.
g. The protection here expressed is in addition to that provided by comparable provisions of the laws relating to commercial transactions and laws simplifying transfers of securities by fiduciaries.
Amended 2015, c.276, s.2.