What is a 'Fiduciary'

A fiduciary is responsible for managing the assets of another person, or of a group of people. Asset managers, bankers, accountants, executors, board members, and corporate officers can all be considered fiduciaries when entrusted in good faith with the responsibility of managing another party's assets. 

A fiduciary's responsibilities are both ethical and legal. When a party knowingly accepts a fiduciary duty on behalf of another party, they are required to act in the best interest of the party whose assets they are managing. The fiduciary is expected to manage the assets for the benefit of the other person rather than for his or her own profit, and cannot benefit personally from theirmanagement of assets. This is what is known as a prudent person standard of care, a standard that originally stems from an 1830 court ruling. This formulation of the prudent-person rule, required that a person acting as fiduciary was required to act first and foremost with the needs of beneficiaries in mind.

I think if this current board of Selectmen were really thinking of the ones whom they are most responsible for, the residents of Town, perhaps they would not have grown the size of government back up so quickly. I think in their haste to make things look well and to make their point, the selectmen put back all the assistants and made no real effort to put any monies aside and this has been a poor choice which I think is evident by all of the financial transfers that have been done and those that will be put before the voters again.

Jeff Bennett