ABSTRACT
This article argues that fiduciary loyalty is best understood by moving beyond the divide between proscriptive and prescriptive accounts of fiduciary duties. While proscriptivists emphasise the no-conflict and no-profit rules, prescriptivists maintain that loyalty requires fiduciaries to advance the interests of those to whom duties are owed. The article argues that both dimensions are necessary as fiduciary loyalty does not consist of merely not being in conflict of interest or not making an unauthorised profit, rather it also requires one to positively act in another’s interests. Nevertheless, a fiduciary is not required to actually achieve the best possible outcome for their principal, rather they are only required to act in what they honestly and rationally perceive to be their principal’s best interests. Thus, a loyal fiduciary is one who, to the exclusion of their own interests, acts in what they honestly and rationally believe to be their principal’s best interests.
€ (Westlaw)
Lucas Clover Alcolea, ‘Ensuring fiduciary loyalty through a best interests duty: beyond the proscriptive/prescriptive divide’ [2026] Conveyancer and Property Lawyer (3) 249-263.
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