Brown

Appellants are investors or spouses of investors in self-directed individual retirement accounts (IRA’s) who sought to recover funds based on the failure of respondents, the trustee and administrator of their IRA’s, to notify them that the borrower of their funds had defaulted in payments to other investors. We conclude that express provisions in the documents governing the business relationship between the parties limited the duties of the trustee and the administrator. As a result, neither the trustee nor the administrator had an obligation to provide appellants with information about the performance of investments other than their own.

Factual and Procedural Summary

This action originally combined the claims of 41 individuals; only 23 of these individuals remain as parties to this appeal.

Appellants invested in self-directed IRA’s (Free Choice IRA’s) in which they made their own investment decisions. The investments they selected were purchased by Sanwa Bank California (Sanwa) as trustee, and administered by California Pension Administrators and Consultants, Inc. (CALPAC). The relationship between appellants as IRA investors and respondents CALPAC and Sanwa as…