"Fridenberg" Decision Brings New Reason To Pennsylvania Trust Law

On August 24, 2009, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania issued a major decision in the field of Pennsylvania trust law, holding in Estate of Anna E. Fridenberg, Deceased, that corporate fiduciaries are no longer bound by the long-discredited rule of Williamson's Estate, which had forbidden them from receiving compensation for services as a trustee in certain trusts created in the first half of the twentieth century or earlier.

In 1938, Mrs. Fridenberg executed a will that created a charitable trust for the support of what today is Albert Einstein Medical Center. The trust went into effect upon the death of Mrs. Fridenberg in 1940. Mrs. Fridenberg appointed Fidelity–Philadelphia Trust Company as both her executor and trustee, and the bank received a commission for its services as her executor.