fiduciary
adjective & noun

- involving trust, especially with regard to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary.

- a person or organization that acts on behalf of others and is legally bound to act in their best interests.

- a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons).

- (of a paper currency) depending for its value on securities (as opposed to gold) or the reputation of the issuer.

Oxford Languages, Investopedia, Cambridge Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

The word "fiduciary" entered the English language in the 1640s, derived from the Latin word fīdūciārius, meaning "held in trust" or "entrusted". This derives from fīdūcia, which translates to "trust," "confidence," or "reliance".

In its transition to English, "fiduciary" retained its core meaning related to trust and responsibility. It initially entered the language as an adjective meaning "holding something in trust". By the 1630s, it was also being used as a noun to refer to "one who holds something in trust".

The word's application expanded over time, encompassing legal, financial, and even theological contexts. In law, it refers to a relationship of trust and accountability. In finance, it gained an additional meaning in 1878, pertaining to paper currency whose value depends on public trust.

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TRUST BUT VERIFY

“Trust, but verify” (доверяй, но проверяй — romanized: doveryay, no proveryay), is a Russian proverb, which rhymes in Russian. The phrase became internationally known in English after Suzanne Massie, a scholar of Russian history, taught it to Ronald Reagan, then president of the United States, who used it on several occasions in the context of nuclear disarmament discussions with the Soviet Union.

Nowadays, the proliferation of fake news and digital impersonation has reached staggering levels. In 2023, the FTC received over 330,000 reports of business impersonation scams and nearly 160,000 reports of government impersonation scams, with losses exceeding $1.1 billion. Moreover, an estimated 500,000 deepfakes were shared on social media in 2023, with video deepfakes tripling and voice deepfakes increasing eightfold compared to the previous year.

Some practical ways to protect yourself:

- Employ the "lateral reading" technique used by professional fact-checkers - when encountering new information, open multiple tabs to verify claims across different reliable sources rather than diving deep into one source.

- If you see a story you’re unsure of, try googling the headline word-for-word. If it’s fake or misleading, you’ll usually see fact-checking websites like Snopes(dot)com debunking it.


- Fortunately, there are often tell-tale signs that an image is AI-generated. Lighting may be inconsistent, hands may have too many fingers, and the image will often look like it is sharper than a normal photograph. There is also a style to the colouration that looks like a photo filter. The BBC have provided a guide to spotting AI generated images.*


- Distrust sources without a legal imprints, including director names (identifiable on LinkedIn), valid email addresses, and telephone numbers.

The circular logic of “trust but verify” endures: trust makes the world work, but verification makes trust possible.

Helga & Paul Smith

SOURCES: Federal Trade Commission (Impersonation Scams), RedLine Digital (Fake News Statistics), CareLine 365 (How to Spot Fake News), *BBC Byte Size (How to spot AI images on social media)

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SYNONYMS

acceptance, assurance, bank on someone/something, believe in something, certainty, confidence, conviction, count on someone, credence, credibility, credible, custodianship, depend on/upon someone/something, dependence, faith, fealty, FIDUCIARY responsibility, good faith, guardianship, have faith in someone/something, integrity, lean on someone/something, loyalty, pact, pledge, protection, put/place your faith in something/someone, reliance, rely on/upon someone/something, safekeeping, security, stewardship, surety, swear by, taking care of, trustworthiness, unwavering belief, ward, wardship, you can depend on/upon it

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“In these days of high-speed digital communication, I guess we all have a FIDUCIARY responsibility to triple-check information we receive or pass on to others.”

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P L E A S E   S U P P O R T   O W A D

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