Trust Practice from Planning Tips to Ethical Administration

A pre-recorded streaming VIDEO replay of the May 2025 webcast, Trust Practice from Planning Tips to Ethical Administration.

In this program, Debra L. Purrington provides an introduction to the Virginia Uniform Trust Code and some of the basic issues for trust planning and administration. This discussion includes the process controlling ethical trust practice, an overview of a trustee’s duty, practical advice for avoiding conflicts, and useful tips for trustees and the attorneys who counsel them. In the second hour, Ms. Purrington discusses the Prudent Investor Law: the general scope of the law, the standards it applies, who is covered, and where the law came from.

Trust Fiduciary Duty

• Ethical duties associated with trustee’s fiduciary responsibilities under the Virginia Uniform Trust Code
• Trusts vs. other fiduciary arrangements
• Identifying the client under Virginia Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7(a)
• Ethical and practical issues in deciding when to create a trust and what the client needs to understand under Virginia Rule of Professional Conduct 1.4(b)
• Ethical trust planning and administration to avoid conflicts of interest under Virginia Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7(a)(1) and (2)
• Safekeeping of property by a fiduciary under Virginia Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15(c)(3)
• Determining whether the trust is revocable or irrevocable
• Finding out who is in charge
• Individual and corporate trustees
• Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act

Prudent Investor Law 

• The standards of the law
• The scope of the law and to whom it applies
• Where the Prudent Investor Law originated
• Delegation of investment responsibility
• Prudency standard under attack

Debra L. Purrington, Bank Legal Counsel / Winchester

Debra Purrington has decades of experience in the law of trusts and estates and fiduciary administration. Trained as a tax attorney, she has made the law of trusts her life’s work. She served as subject matter expert on a fiduciary litigation team for many years, counseled trustees, and participated in the estate planning process.

As Chief Fiduciary at the Bank of Clarke in Virginia, Ms. Purrington continues a longstanding tradition of accomplished fiduciary services. She is responsible for regulatory compliance, oversees all trust and estate administration, and mentors a successful team of experienced trust and investment professionals. She also serves as internal legal counsel to the Bank of Clarke, helping bank officers to evaluate and manage legal issues in several business lines.

Ms. Purrington formerly led a segment of U.S. Trust, Bank of America, earning national recognition for fiduciary excellence. She has drafted and established trust policy and litigated numerous fiduciary and investment issues. She has counseled many trustees on the Prudent Investor Law and the trustee’s fiduciary duty. She has frequently worked as a consultant in matters involving fiduciary liability, bank trust services, and Prudent Investor issues.

Ms. Purrington serves as an expert witness in federal courts concerning matters involving fiduciary investments, bank trust services, policy, and practice.