UTC's Duty to Inform and Report at 20 - How Mandatory Is Transparency

In trust administration, there is often a tugging contest between a settlor's or trustee's desire to limit certain information being released to beneficiaries and beneficiaries' desire for total transparency. While the reasons for limiting information are varied, a common one is autonomy, sometimes emanating from the settlor's or trustee's concern that such information may be harmful to the beneficiary or the family dynamic. Nowhere is this tension more apparent than the interplay between Uniform Trust Code (UTC) Sections 105 (Default and Mandatory Rules) and 813 (Duty to Inform and Report).