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1997 Connecticut Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (1997)

handle is hein.sag/sagct0016 and id is 1 raw text is: 1997 Formal Opinion, Attorney General of Connecticut Attorney General's Opinion Attorney General Richard Blumenthal January 10, 1997 John F. Anderson Director The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station 123 Huntington Street New Haven, Connecticut 06504 Dear Dr. Anderson: This letter is written in response to your request, on behalf of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station 1 (the Station), for an opinion concerning several legal questions arising out of a recent report by the Auditors of Public Accounts. The report questioned the propriety of how the Board of the Station (the Board) had managed four private charitable trusts. The Board is the trustee for three of the funds, and is the beneficiary of the fourth fund. Specifically, you have set out the following questions: 1. Does Conn. Gen. Stat. * 4-33 require that the fiduciary funds be treated in accordance with the requirements of that section? Is the Board required to report information pertaining to the fiduciary funds to the State Comptroller? 2. Does the Board, in its capacity as trustee, have authority (a) to retain private legal counsel to it as trustee, and to the trust, without the approval of the Attorney General and (b) to purchase insurance for the trusts without the approval of the State Insurance Purchasing Board? 3. Did the Board, acting as trustee of the Jones Fund, have the authority to form Linconn, Inc.? If not, what should the Board now do? For the reasons set out below, it is our opinion that the Board, in its capacity as trustee, had authority to retain private legal counsel, purchase insurance, and form Linconn, Inc. With respect to the first question, the answer depends on whether the funds in question are held by the Board as trustee, or received by the Station as a beneficiary. FACTUAL BACKGROUND: THE TRUST INSTRUMENTS Your questions relate to four different trust funds: The Lockwood Trust, the Samuel 1997-001 Page 1 of 8