Trusts Bill

Obviously, if there’s going to be a trust, then it follows that there will need to be trustees, and so Part 5 of the bill covers the very important process of the appointment and the discharge or removal of trustees. So clause 86 sets out who may remove a trustee and who can appoint a replacement, and there’s a set of processes around there around as to who can be appointed as a trustee where there is a statutory trustee; who may be a sole trustee, and how that process is embarked upon; and a process for appointing trustees for sole statutory trusts. There is provision for dealing with a trustee retiring; then, on the death of a trustee, what happens in that particular instance; then the act of removal of a trustee and the conditions under which that can happen and how that happens; and then there is the optional removal of a trustee. So all of those are laid out there.

You’d expect those sorts of things to be in the statute. Many of these things would appear in a trust deed, and I expect now, when the bill passes its third reading and achieves the Royal assent, there will be a flurry of activity in law firms around the country as trust deeds are reviewed and updated and modernised. But they need to do no other than refer to the very clear provisions in this bill to provide for the appointment and removal processes for trustees provided within the bill. They are there laid out and they are very clear, and I don’t think trustees or settlors will need any further assistance than what is already provided for in this bill.

Part 5 agreed to.

Part 6 Termination and variation of trusts