As long as you are acting as trustee, you must act with prudence and fairness. Since you are taking care of the assets for the beneficiary, you are responsible for doing the best you can to avoid waste of assets, and you must grow assets. Many people worry that they could get in trouble should they make a bad decision, but that is not the case. As long as there was no ill intent, and it was a reasonable decision at the time that it was made, there won’t be any penalties. Trustees do, however, typically manage assets conservatively to ensure assets will be there for the beneficiaries when the time comes.