Fiduciary Duty Of Directors Essay

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Introduction
The role of directors
The board of directors of a non-profit corporation is responsible for the management of the company. In general terms, this means that the board is responsible for supervising senior staff, providing strategic planning and developing and implementing the company's policy. Board members should be informed of the activities and financial affairs of the company (or at least become). When the company is a charity, the board has a more rigorous due diligence in regard to the protection of assets for charitable purposes.

In fulfilling its mandate to manage the affairs of the company, the board must meet the objects of the company as set out in the letters patent or articles of incorporation and the bylaws of the …show more content…

They have what is called a "fiduciary duty" to the corporation. This duty is likely "fiduciary" because the obligation to act in the best interests of the company is essentially a duty of loyalty, honesty and good faith. The modern corporate laws governing commercial companies contain a concise statement of the fiduciary duty imposed on directors. Most corporate statutes governing nonprofit corporations do not. The wording of fiduciary duty was developed in common law by Canadian and British courts or has been articulated in the Civil Code.

Can be divided into two broad categories fiduciary duties of directors:

a) the duty of care and
b) the duty of …show more content…

They can also be held personally liable for breaches of an increasing number of laws that impose them as directors of responsibility (see Chapter 3). The directors are also responsible for offenses they commit themselves, even if committed in the exercise of their responsibilities as directors. Generally, if an administrator commits a crime, the fact that he acted as a director at the time the crime was committed is not an excuse.

The duty of loyalty
(A) The duty of competence or ability in discharging their duties, directors of non-profit corporations must exercise an appropriate degree of competence. In common law, a standard "subjective" applies to directors of nonprofit corporations ctituées under the Act Canada Corporations or a provincial law on incorporation, unless these laws do not specify a standard different. In some provinces, which has been described as an "objective" standard of competence is defined in law. This standard is discussed below. The subjective standard requires an administrator:

... To exercise a degree of skill and diligence that would be equivalent to due diligence that would be expected of an ordinary person in these circumstances, but it did not demonstrate in fulfilling its obligations a degree of competence higher than would be expected of someone with his knowledge and experience rating

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