§ 59-21-02 — Standard of conduct in managing and investing institutional fund

North Dakota § 59-21-02

• Jurisdiction: North Dakota
• Title 59: Trusts, Uses, and Powers
• Ch. 59-21: Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act

Text

1. Subject to the intent of a donor expressed in a gift instrument, an institution, in
managing and investing an institutional fund, shall consider the charitable purposes of
the institution and the purposes of the institutional fund.
2. In addition to complying with the duty of loyalty imposed by law other than this chapter,
each person responsible for managing and investing an institutional fund shall manage
and invest the fund in good faith and with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a
like position would exercise under similar circumstances.
3. In managing and investing an institutional fund, an institution:
a. May incur only costs that are appropriate and reasonable in relation to the assets,
the purposes of the institution, and the skills available to the institution; and
b. Shall make a reasonable effort to verify facts relevant to the management and
investment of the fund.
4. An institution may pool two or more institutional funds for purposes of management
and investment.
5. Except as otherwise provided by a gift instrument, the following rules apply:
a. In managing and investing an institutional fund, the following factors, if relevant,
must be considered:
(1) General economic conditions;
(2) The possible effect of inflation or deflation;
(3) The expected tax consequences, if any, of investment decisions or
strategies;

(4) The role that each investment or course of action plays within the overall
investment portfolio of the fund;
(5) The expected total return from income and the appreciation of investments;
(6) Other resources of the institution;
(7) The needs of the institution and the fund to make distributions and to
preserve capital; and
(8) An asset's special relationship or special value, if any, to the charitable
purposes of the institution.
b. Management and investment decisions about an individual asset must be made
not in isolation but rather in the context of the institutional fund's portfolio of
investments as a whole and as a part of an overall investment strategy having
risk and return objectives reasonably suited to the fund and to the institution.
c. Except as otherwise provided by law other than this chapter, an institution may
invest in any kind of property or type of investment consistent with this section.
d. An institution shall diversify the investments of an institutional fund unless the
institution reasonably determines that, because of special circumstances, the
purposes of the fund are better-served without diversification.
e. Within a reasonable time after receiving property, an institution shall make and
carry out decisions concerning the retention or disposition of the property or to
rebalance a portfolio, in order to bring the institutional fund into compliance with
the purposes, terms, and distribution requirements of the institution as necessary
to meet other circumstances of the institution and the requirements of this
chapter.
f. A person that has special skills or expertise, or is selected in reliance upon the
person's representation that the person has special skills or expertise, has a duty
to use those skills or that expertise in managing and investing institutional funds.