TRUSTEES AND EXECUTORS' ACCOUNTS
1. From the accounting standpoint, business can be divided into two general classes: (a) Business conducted by the owner or a person appointed by him for the benefit of the owner; (b) Business that is the property of persons incapable of transacting business, necessitating the appointment, by the owners or other authority, of persons to transact business in place of the owner. It is with business of the latter class that we now have to deal.
In this class the owner or proprietor is supplanted by the administrator of the business. The generic term trustee applies to the administrator, who also takes more specific titles, depending upon the nature of the trust—as executor, administrator, assignee, guardian, receiver, etc. He is subject to the powers granted by the source of his appointment, and to the restrictions and requirements imposed by law.
A trustee—by whatever specific name designated—acting in his capacity as substitute for the owner, is the owner of the trust property as against the public. He is accountable to no one but the beneficiaries for whom he is acting as custodian. As owner of the estate, he can sue or be sued and perform many functions pertaining to the ordinary property owner. The beneficiary, by reason of his equity in the estate, can compel the trustee to carry out the provisions of his trust.