Transient absorption spectroscopy is used to study photophysical processes of 1:1 Fe(III) complexes with all four fluorosalicylic acid isomers (Fe-FSAs) in aqueous solutions. Excited states of Fe-FSAs decay to the ground electronic state with two time constants. The faster process is interpreted as internal conversion to the vibrationally hot electronic ground state and the slower one - as a combination of vibrational cooling and solvation of the ground state. The results obtained for Fe-FSAs and other previously investigated Fe(III) salicylato compounds allow us to reveal the main cause of photochemical stability of the complexes upon charge transfer band excitation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.