duty and fraud entitling the beneficiary to general and punitive damages. In re Estate of Zeigler, 295 Ga. App. 156, 671 S.E.2d 218 (2008) (decided under former
Interest. — It was not error to award trust beneficiaries interest from the date of encroachment for the trustee’s breach of the trustee’s fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries under a trust’s encroachment provision by making distributions to a co-trustee because: (1) O.C.G.A. § 53- 12-302(a)(1) and (3) said the trustee was liable for interest; and (2) under O.C.G.A. § 53-12-302(b), a trustee was liable for interest from the date of a breach. Reliance Trust Co. v. Candler, 315 Ga. App. 495, 726 S.E.2d 636 (2012).
Appellate court erred by affirming an award of prejudgment interest to the remainder beneficiaries in a breach of trust action because under O.C.G.A. § 53- 12-302(a)(3), the amount that would have reasonably accrued to them if there had been no breach was the amount they were awarded in actual damages and they were not entitled to interest under the terms of the trust instrument. Reliance Trust Co. v. Candler, 294 Ga. 15, 751 S.E.2d 47 (2013).
(a) No provision in a trust instrument shall be effective to relieve the trustee of liability for a breach of trust committed in bad faith or with reckless indifference to the interests of the beneficiaries.
(b) A trustee of a revocable trust shall not be liable to a beneficiary
for any act performed or omitted pursuant to written direction from a person holding the power to revoke, including a person to whom the power to revoke the trust is delegated. If the trust is revocable in part, then this subsection shall apply with respect to the interest of the beneficiary in that part of the trust property.