trustee, n.
Part A: And “trusty.” Trustee (/truhs-TEE/) = a person who, having a nominal title to property, holds it in trust for the benefit of one or more others (the beneficiaries). “Trusty” (/TRUHS-tee/), n., is an Americanism meaning “a (trusted) convict or prisoner.” E.g.: “Because five jail trusties, supervised by the St. John Sheriff’s Office, provided the labor, the addition cost taxpayers less than $12,000.” “Room to Grow,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), 19 Sept. 1997, at B1.
Part B: And “executor.” In the context of wills and estates, people are frequently confused about the difference between an “executor” and a “trustee.” The executor collects the decedent’s property, pays the debts, and hands over the remaining property to the people who are entitled to it under the will. A trustee becomes necessary only when the property must be held for a time because it cannot, for some reason, be handed over at once to the people entitled to it.
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Quotation of the Day: “When students enter my classes, very often what I end up doing is beating out of them habits they were rewarded for in high school — many of them having to do with excessive abstraction, wordiness, overcomplication, excessive reliance on jargon.” David Foster Wallace, Quack This Way 43-44 (2013).
