51A-5-31. Trust service office--Agreement between institutions--Filing--Notice--Contents--Substitution as fiduciary. If the state or national bank at which a trust service office is to be established has previously exercised trust powers, the bank and the institution establishing the trust service office shall enter into an agreement respecting those fiduciary powers to which the trust service office shall succeed and shall file the agreement with the director. The trust service office shall cause a notice of the filing, in a form prescribed by the director, to be published as the director may determine. After filing and publication, the state or national bank establishing the trust service office shall, as of the date the office first opens for business, without further authorization of any kind, succeed to and be substituted for that institution as to all fiduciary powers, rights, duties, privileges, and liabilities of the bank in its capacity as fiduciary for all estates, trusts, guardianships, conservatorships, and other fiduciary relationships of which the bank is then serving as fiduciary, except as may be otherwise specified in the agreement between the trust service office and the state or national bank. The trust service office shall also be deemed named as fiduciary in all writings, including wills, trusts, court orders, and similar documents and instruments naming the state or national bank as fiduciary, signed before the date the trust service office first opened for business, unless expressly negated by the writing or otherwise specified in the agreement between the trust service office and the state or national bank establishing the same. On the effective date of the substitution, the state or national bank shall be released and absolved from all future fiduciary duties and obligations under such writings and shall discontinue its exercise of trust powers on all matters not specifically retained by the agreement. Nothing in this section discharges other applicable statutes, nor does it absolve a state or national bank exercising trust powers from liabilities arising out of any breach of fiduciary duty or obligation occurring prior to the date the trust service office first opens for business at the bank. Nothing in this section affects the authority, duties, or obligations of a bank with respect to relationships which may be established without trust powers, including escrow arrangements, whether the relationships arise before or after the establishment of the trust service office.

Source: SL 1984, ch 314, § 4; SL 1988, ch 377, § 118; SDCL, § 51-19-16; SL 1993, ch 213, § 249.