One possible way to resolve certain types of conflicts of interest is to put a public official's assets under fiduciary management and curtail the owner's discretion over them. Among mechanisms of this kind, the most well-known are probably blind trusts. They have been widely used in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and have been tested in several other countries, including those in Eastern Europe and Latin America.
However, the question of how effective they are in preventing corruption remains open. This paper thoroughly examines potential approaches to using fiduciary management to mitigate conflicts of interest. It discusses questions that are important to address when developing relevant mechanisms at the national level, considers the advantages and disadvantages of solutions applied by different countries, and draws general conclusions about the workability of this anti-corruption tool, including in highly corrupt environments.