A single sentence
A trustee shall invest trust property in accordance with chapter 518.
Section 736.0901, Florida Statutes. Enacted in 2006 and never amended.
That is the entire section. There is nothing omitted.
It is worth a page because of what it explains. People come to the Florida Trust Code looking for the rules about how a trustee must invest, and they find almost nothing. This is why. Florida’s investment law for trustees is not in chapter 736 at all. It is in chapter 518, the Florida Uniform Prudent Investor Act, and this sentence is the bridge.
What that means when you are researching
If your question is whether a trustee invested properly, chapter 736 will give you three things and no more.
This section, which tells you to look at chapter 518. Section 736.0804, which states the duty to administer the trust as a prudent person would, considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements and other circumstances. And section 736.0902, which takes life insurance back out again.
Everything else, including the diversification requirement, the portfolio wide standard by which decisions are judged, and the rules on delegating investment functions, sits in chapter 518.
The Part is only two sections long
Part IX of the Trust Code, headed trust investments, contains this section and one other. That is unusual, and the imbalance is the point. One sentence imports the whole of the prudent investor law, and one long section carves an exception out of it.
The exception, in section 736.0902, is the life insurance provision. It matters far more than its obscurity suggests, because it governs every irrevocable life insurance trust in the state, and it does not apply automatically.
The rule that answers most complaints
Most people who ask about trust investments are asking because the account is worth less than it was. That, standing alone, is not a claim. Section 736.1003 is explicit that absent a breach of trust a trustee is not liable for a loss or depreciation in the value of trust property, or for not having made a profit.
So the question is never simply whether the portfolio fell. It is whether the trustee’s conduct met the chapter 518 standard, judged as the statute directs rather than with the benefit of hindsight.
No Florida court has cited this section
A search returns no documents at all. That is unsurprising for a pure signpost. A court deciding an investment question cites chapter 518, or section 736.0804, rather than the sentence directing it there.
We record the nil result because we record them consistently, and because it confirms the practical point. If you are looking for Florida case law on trustee investment duties, you will not find it under this section number.
Frequently Asked Questions
How must a Florida trustee invest trust property?
In accordance with chapter 518, the Florida Uniform Prudent Investor Act. Section 736.0901 says so in a single sentence and contains nothing else.
Why does the Trust Code not contain the investment rules?
Because Florida already had them. Chapter 518 predates the Trust Code, so rather than restate the prudent investor rule the Legislature imported it by reference.
What does the prudent investor rule require in outline?
It requires a trustee to invest and manage trust assets as a prudent investor would, considering the purposes and terms of the trust, and it generally requires diversification. The detail is in chapter 518 and in section 736.0804.
Is a loss a breach of that duty?
No. Section 736.1003 says that absent a breach of trust a trustee is not liable for a loss or depreciation in the value of trust property, or for not having made a profit.
Are there exceptions to the prudent investor rule?
One significant one, and it is the other section in this Part. Section 736.0902 switches off several investment duties for life insurance held in trust, on conditions.
Common Situations
You want the rules on trust investing. They are in chapter 518, not in the Trust Code.
The portfolio lost value. A loss without a breach is not a claim under section 736.1003.
The trust holds life insurance. Section 736.0902 may remove several duties, on conditions.
A trustee delegated investment decisions. Delegation is governed by chapter 518, not this section.
Sources of Law
- Section 736.0901, Florida Statutes (2025). Enacted by s. 9, ch. 2006-217 and never amended.
- Chapter 518, Florida Statutes, the Florida Uniform Prudent Investor Act.
- Section 736.0804, Florida Statutes, the duty of prudent administration.
- Section 736.1003, Florida Statutes, on loss in the absence of a breach.
- Our review searched the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida District Courts of Appeal, the Florida federal district courts, the Florida bankruptcy courts and the Eleventh Circuit on August 16, 2026, requesting every precedential status rather than the default view. We report a nil result as our own review and not as a certainty, and we confirm that a section number actually appears in a decision before relying on it, having now found three search results for statutes whose numbers appear nowhere in the opinions returned.
- Decisions discussed here are published opinions in other parties’ cases. They are not matters handled by this firm and they predict nothing about any reader’s case. No commercial citator pass has been run on this research.
Updated on August 16, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law and published court decisions, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Reading this page does not make us your lawyers. Please do not send confidential details until we have connected.
