Estate & Legacy Planning

Fiduciary

Also known asFiduciary dutyFiduciary standard

Definition

A fiduciary is a person or institution legally bound to act in another party's best interest. Fiduciaries owe duties of loyalty, care, and full disclosure, and must place the client's interests above their own. The label applies to trustees, executors, registered investment advisers, attorneys, board members, and certain financial planners.

By Olomon EditorialLast updated
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Key takeaways

  • Fiduciary duty is a legal standard — not a marketing claim.
  • Trustees, executors, RIAs, attorneys, and CFP® professionals (in many engagements) owe fiduciary duties.
  • The fiduciary standard is higher than the “suitability” standard that traditionally applied to brokers.
  • A fiduciary must disclose conflicts of interest, not merely manage them.

How Olomon thinks about this

Fiduciary work depends on visibility. An advisor or trustee can't act in your best interest if they can only see fragments of your financial life. Olomon's permissioned-collaboration model is designed for fiduciaries: granular access controls, audit trails of who saw what and when, and a unified record they can act on — reinforcing both the legal and practical dimensions of fiduciary care.

In-depth definition

When you hand someone authority over your money, your business, or your health decisions, the law imposes a heightened standard called fiduciary duty. The fiduciary must act loyally (in your interest, not theirs), with care (using the skill and prudence of a reasonable professional), and with full transparency (no hidden conflicts, no self-dealing).

Frequently asked questions

  • Ask in writing: “Are you acting as a fiduciary on this engagement?” Registered Investment Advisers are fiduciaries by law; broker-dealers historically were not, though the SEC's Regulation Best Interest now imposes a related standard. CFP® professionals must act as fiduciaries when providing financial advice under CFP Board rules.

  • Civil liability for losses caused by the breach, disgorgement of profits, removal from the fiduciary role, and in serious cases regulatory sanctions or criminal exposure.

Sources

Primary, authoritative references.

  1. 1

    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

    Information for Newly-Registered Investment Advisers

    Cited for: Fiduciary obligations of registered investment advisers

  2. 2

    Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards

    CFP Board Code of Ethics & Standards of Conduct

    Cited for: Fiduciary duty under CFP® standards

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Cite this page

APA
Olomon Editorial Team. (2026). Fiduciary. Olomon Financial Glossary. https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/fiduciary

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