The terms "fiduciary" and "fiduciary duty" get used a lot in estate planning. The legal term "fiudciary" derives from the Latin words fides, meaning "faith", fiducia, meaning "trust," and fiduciarius, meaning "holding in trust." As a generic term, a "fiduciary" is a person who has ownership or control of property for the benefit of someone else.
A trustee owns title to the property in a trust, but holds it for the benefit of the trust's beneficiaries, not himself. We would therefore say that the trustee is a fiduciary over the trust property. While a trustee is the classic example of a fiduciary, there are others: the executor or administrator of an estate is a fiduciary with respect to the estate; a guardian is a fiduciary with respect to the property of the ward (person under guardianship); an agent under a power of attorney is a fiduciary with respect to the property of her principal; and the officers and directors of a corporation are fiduciaries with respect to the corporation's assets (which are owned by the shareholders).
If you're a fiduciary, you have a "fiduciary duty." Fiduciary duty is often described as the highest duty of loyalty in the legal system. My shorthand explanation I use with clients is that "fiduciary duty" means "it ain't your money!" For instance, a trustee owes a "fiduciary duty" to the trust beneficiaries to manage that property for their benefit in accordance with the terms of the trust. If the trustee breaches that duty by using the trust property for his own benefit, that is a rather serious matter. The trustee will be liable to the beneficiary for damages caused, and for any profits he made, will very likely be removed by the court, and in certain situations may be hit with punitive damages, statutory penalties, and even criminal prosecution.
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