It is customary for the courts to designate or approve certain trust companies as depositories for funds paid into court, and the effect of such designation or approval would be to relieve executors, trustees, or others acting in a fiduciary capacity and depositing with these companies from liability for loss through their failure. A person charged with due care in the selection of a depository could not be held to have been wanting in such care in choosing as a depository a trust company which the court has itself approved. The powers of trust companies vary in different states, and when they are created by special legislation, local companies are found with different charter privileges. The capital and surplus of these institutions are liable for their acts in fiduciary capacities, and in some states they are required to deposit with one of the state departments a fund as a special guarantee. The liability assumed is generally accepted by the courts in lieu of the bonds which individuals acting in similar capacities are required to give. The development of trust companies in the United States has been remarkably rapid. Since 1882, when the first legal authority was given for the exercise by corporations of fiduciary powers, they have steadily grown in number until there are now more than fifteen hundred, distributed as follows: Alabama 30 Arizona 9 Arkansas 38 California 24 Colorado 16 Connecticut 31 Delaware 12 District of Columbia 5 Florida 9 Georgia 25 Idaho 10 Illinois 75 Indiana 108 Iowa 29 Kansas 4 Kentucky 42 Louisiana 22 Maine 39 Maryland 21 Massachusetts 56 Michigan 6 Minnesota 4 Mississippi 19 Missouri 49 Montana 7 Nebraska 13 Nevada 1 New Hampshire 4 New Jersey 86 New Mexico 10 New York 78 North Carolina 38 North Dakota 5 Ohio 60 Oklahoma 10 Oregon 20 Pennsylvania 260 Rhode Island 11 South Carolina 17 South Dakota 12 Tennessee 73 Texas 52 Utah 9 Vermont 26 Virginia 19 Washington 20 West Virginia 22 Wisconsin 9 Wyoming 5 Hawaii 5 ---- Total 1555