A breach of fiduciary duty in Florida can expose the wrongdoer to compensatory and punitive damages, removal from the position of trust, and — when the victim is elderly or disabled — felony criminal charges. To win a civil claim, the injured party must prove three things: a fiduciary relationship existed, the fiduciary violated the duty owed, and that violation caused actual harm. The remedies available depend on whether the fiduciary was a trustee, a corporate director, an attorney, a guardian, or someone else holding a position of trust.
Who Qualifies as a Fiduciary
Not every relationship creates a fiduciary duty. Under Florida law, the duty arises when one person places special trust and confidence in another and that other person accepts the responsibility to act in the first person’s interest. The Florida Supreme Court held in Doe v. Evans that this relationship does not need to be written down. The duties involved “need not be legal; they may be moral, social, domestic or personal,” and “the origin of the confidence is immaterial.”1FindLaw. Doe v. Evans A court can find the relationship implied by the facts.
The most common examples include trustees managing assets for beneficiaries, corporate directors overseeing a company, attorneys representing clients, guardians caring for incapacitated persons, and agents acting under a power of attorney. Corporate directors must act in good faith and in a manner they reasonably believe to be in the best interests of the corporation, with the care of an ordinary prudent person in a similar position.2Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 607.0830 – General Standards for Directors Trustees owe parallel obligations under Florida’s Trust Code in Chapter 736.
The Three Elements You Must Prove
Florida courts require a plaintiff to establish three elements. First, the defendant held a position of trust and confidence and accepted the duty to advise, counsel, or protect the plaintiff. Second, the defendant breached that duty. Third, the plaintiff suffered damages as a direct result.
Breaches take recognizable forms. The clearest is self-dealing, where the fiduciary uses the position for personal gain. A trustee who diverts trust funds to cover personal expenses is self-dealing. Florida’s Trust Code treats any violation of a trustee’s duties as a breach of trust, and the beneficiary does not have to prove the trustee acted with bad intent.3Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 736.1001 – Remedies for Breach of Trust
Other recurring patterns include failing to disclose material information, favoring one beneficiary over another, taking a business opportunity that belonged to the entity, and failing to use reasonable care in managing assets. A director who quietly takes a deal the company should have had the chance to pursue has breached the duty of loyalty. Causation matters: the breach itself must be what produced the loss, not a market downturn or unrelated event that happened to coincide with the fiduciary’s lapse.
What a Florida Court Can Order
Florida courts have broad authority to craft remedies. The goal is to put the injured party back in the position they would have occupied if the breach had never happened, and the court can combine several tools to get there.
Compensatory Damages and Restitution
The most common award is compensatory damages for the actual financial loss. This can include return of misappropriated funds, lost profits the beneficiary would otherwise have earned, and expenses incurred because of the misconduct. For trust-related breaches, Section 736.1001 lets a court compel a trustee to “redress a breach of trust by paying money or restoring property,” order an accounting, and trace wrongfully transferred property to recover it or its proceeds.3Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 736.1001 – Remedies for Breach of Trust
The court can also reduce or deny the trustee’s compensation entirely, void specific improper transactions, and impose a constructive trust on property acquired through the breach. A constructive trust declares that the fiduciary holds legal title only on paper and must turn the property over to the rightful beneficiary.
Punitive Damages
When the conduct crosses from carelessness into intentional wrongdoing or gross negligence, punitive damages become available on top of compensatory damages. Florida Statute 768.72 requires clear and convincing evidence that the fiduciary either knew the conduct was wrong and likely to cause harm but did it anyway, or acted so recklessly that the behavior amounted to a conscious disregard for the rights of others.4Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 768.72 – Pleading in Civil Actions; Claim for Punitive Damages A plaintiff cannot even add a punitive damages count to the lawsuit without first making a reasonable evidentiary showing to the court.
Florida caps the award in most cases. It generally cannot exceed the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000. If the misconduct was motivated solely by unreasonable financial gain and the dangerous nature was actually known to the person making policy decisions, the cap rises to the greater of four times compensatory damages or $2 million. The cap disappears entirely when the fiduciary specifically intended to harm the plaintiff and actually did so.5Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 768.73 – Punitive Damages; Limitation
Removal of the Fiduciary
Monetary damages are not the only option. A court can remove a fiduciary from the role. Section 736.0706 permits removal of a trustee for a serious breach of trust, persistent failure to administer the trust effectively, or unfitness. A settlor, co-trustee, or beneficiary can petition, and the court can act on its own.6Justia Law. Florida Statutes 736.0706 – Removal of Trustee While a removal petition is pending, the court can appoint a special fiduciary to take control of the property and suspend the current one to prevent further damage.
Removal reaches beyond trustees. Courts can remove corporate officers, guardians, and other fiduciaries when continued service threatens the people they are supposed to protect. For attorneys, a breach can also trigger disciplinary proceedings through the Florida Bar, with suspension or disbarment possible on top of civil liability.
When Criminal Charges Apply
Most breach claims are civil, but Florida imposes criminal penalties when the victim is elderly or disabled. Under Section 825.103, exploitation of an elderly person or disabled adult includes breaching a fiduciary duty as a guardian, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney when the breach results in an unauthorized taking of the victim’s property. It also covers knowingly obtaining or using a vulnerable person’s assets by someone in a position of trust and confidence.7Justia Law. Florida Statutes 825.103 – Exploitation of an Elderly Person or Disabled Adult
The felony level scales with the value of the assets:
- $50,000 or more: first-degree felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
- $10,000 to $49,999: second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
- Under $10,000: third-degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
Criminal charges can proceed alongside a civil lawsuit. Prosecutors do not need to wait for the civil case to conclude, and a conviction carries prison time, fines, and a criminal record in addition to whatever civil damages the court awards.
How Long You Have to File
Florida generally applies a four-year limitations period to breach of fiduciary duty claims. When the claim involves fraud, Section 95.11(3)(i) also sets a four-year window measured from the date of discovery.8Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 95.11 – Limitations Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property Claims based on a written agreement, such as a trust instrument, may fall under the five-year period for written contracts. The clock typically runs from when the plaintiff knew or should have known about the breach, not from the breach itself. This discovery rule matters especially in fiduciary cases, because the whole nature of the relationship means the beneficiary often has no reason to suspect anything is wrong until much later.
Delay is one of the most common ways a viable claim is lost. Once you suspect a fiduciary acted against your interests, the limitations period is running whether you have confirmed the extent of the harm or not.
Defenses a Fiduciary May Raise
Several defenses come up repeatedly, and anyone bringing or defending a claim should know them.
No Fiduciary Relationship Existed
The most fundamental defense is that no fiduciary relationship existed. Without it, there is no duty to breach. This works best when the parties dealt at arm’s length in a standard commercial transaction, or when the plaintiff is trying to elevate an ordinary business dealing into a fiduciary one. Florida courts look at whether the plaintiff actually reposed trust and confidence in the defendant and whether the defendant accepted it. A buyer and seller negotiating a deal are not fiduciaries to each other just because they exchanged information.
Business Judgment Rule
Corporate directors and LLC managers benefit from Florida’s statutory business judgment rule. Under Section 607.0831, a director is not personally liable for monetary damages unless the breach involved a criminal violation, a transaction producing an improper personal benefit, conscious disregard for the corporation’s best interest, or recklessness and bad faith. The rule presumes the director acted properly. Honest mistakes in judgment, even costly ones, are generally protected if the director acted in good faith and with reasonable care.
Beneficiary Consent or Ratification
Under Section 736.1012, a trustee is not liable for a breach if the beneficiary consented to the conduct, released the trustee from liability, or ratified the transaction. This defense has limits. It fails if the trustee obtained consent through improper conduct, or if the beneficiary did not understand their rights or the material facts at the time.9Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 736.1012 – Beneficiarys Consent, Release, or Ratification Pressuring a confused beneficiary into signing a release will not shield the trustee.
Lack of Causation
Even where a breach happened, the defendant can argue it did not cause the loss. A trustee who failed to diversify a portfolio might show that the losses came entirely from a market downturn that would have hit any portfolio the same way. The plaintiff carries the burden of proving the causal link, and breaking that chain can defeat the claim or significantly reduce damages.
Exculpatory Clauses
Some trust instruments contain clauses limiting a trustee’s liability. Florida courts will enforce reasonable exculpatory provisions, but they draw a hard line at clauses attempting to excuse bad faith, intentional wrongdoing, or reckless indifference to the beneficiary’s interests. Courts also scrutinize how the clause got into the document. If the trustee drafted it, or the settlor had no independent legal advice, the clause is far more likely to be struck down. An exculpatory clause is never a license to steal.