What are the roles of OST and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in managing the Indian fiduciary trust?
OST is responsible for (1) financial management of the fiduciary trust—including collection of trust funds, accounting, investing and disbursing trust funds to individual and tribal beneficiaries; (2) appraisals of real property—providing impartial estimates of value for a variety of specific real property interests on land owned in trust or restricted status; and (3) services provided to trust beneficiaries—coordinating reform efforts to improve overall trust asset management and beneficiary services throughout Interior. BIA is responsible for resource management—including managing trust activities relating to property leases, permits, trespass, rights-of-way and land conservation and use. BIA also is responsible for recording title ownership, preparing probates for adjudication and managing supervised individual Indian trust accounts through its social services staff.
