steward

A steward is a person or entity entrusted with the management, care, and oversight of another's affairs, property, or resources. The role exists wherever one agent is formally authorized to act on behalf of a principal — from household management in feudal estates to corporate governance and digital asset guardianship. The parameters of stewardship are: (1) a principal who holds ownership or entitlement, (2) an agent granted delegated authority with fiduciary duties, and (3) a corpus of resources to manage. Stewardship persists through institutional arrangements — legal instruments (trusts, powers of attorney, charters), social norms of fiduciary responsibility, and formal office-holding structures that outlive any individual incumbent. The role is sustained by the gap between ownership and operational competence, which no single agent can bridge alone.\n\n[formal: curator | substrate: behavior | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.13]