Preparing Fiduciary Fund Financial Statements

If you only read one thing All fiduciary funds use accrual basis accounting, and produce a Statement of Fiduciary Net Position and a Statement of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position.

Builds on FM9.3 Custodial funds use additions and deductions terminology. This page covers the actual statements that terminology appears on, across all fiduciary fund types.

Why This Matters

These two statements are how fiduciary activity gets reported to the outside world, entirely separate from both the fund-level and government-wide statements covered everywhere else in this track.

What’s Actually Going On

Every fiduciary fund, custodial, investment trust, private-purpose trust, pension trust, uses accrual basis accounting, full recognition regardless of when cash moves. The Statement of Fiduciary Net Position shows what’s held at a point in time, assets and liabilities, with net position representing what’s held in trust. The Statement of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position shows the additions and deductions over the year, how that net position moved.

How This Applies

If you’re asked to confirm how much a district holds in trust for others, right now, at this moment, the Statement of Fiduciary Net Position is the one that answers that question directly.