trustees, individual
or corporate (66)
by
Roderick Ramage, solicitor, www.law-office.co.uk
(first
published by distribution to professional contacts 4 November 2019)
DISCLAIMER
This article is not advice to any
person and may not be taken as a definitive statement of the law in general or
in any particular case. The author does
not accept any responsibility for anything that any person does or does not do
as a result of reading it.
basic trust law in one paragraph
A trust comes into existence when one person transfers
property to others, as trustees, who are to hold it for beneficiaries or a
charitable cause. The trustees are the
legal owners of the property, or whatever rights have been passed to them, but
for the benefit of the beneficiaries or charitable cause and not for their
personal benefit. Trust law very
strictly prevents from benefiting personally from the trust unless permitted by
the trust document: this rule does not apply to pension scheme trustees
(Pensions Act 1995, s39). The basic
structure of a simple classic family trust consists of one document (trust deed
or will) and three parties, who are (1) the settlor, who appoints trustees, transfers
property to them and determines the purposes of the trust and the trustees’
duties and powers, (2) the trustees, who are the legal but not beneficial owners
of the trust property and administer the trusts according to the trust document
and (3) the beneficiaries, who are volunteers whose role is passive, to receive
benefits in accordance with the trust document.
pension scheme trusts
The Finance Act 1921 provided favourable tax treatment
for superannuation funds (the equivalent of today’s occupational pension
schemes) established under irrevocable trusts.
There has been no tax law requirement from 6 April 2006 for occupational
pension scheme to be established under trust.
The main reason for the use of trusts, both long before the Finance Act
1921 and today, is that putting the pension fund in trust puts it out of reach
of the employer and its creditors.
The structure of a pension scheme trust is only approximately
similar to that of a typical family trust: it (simplified) still consists of
one document and three parties, but the roles of two of them differ significantly
from those in a family trust. The
employer is a settlor, but it is also a beneficiary, because, if there is a surplus
of assets, after all beneficiaries’ interest have been secured, the surplus or
part of it usually belongs to the employer so it is also a possible beneficiary. The members are not mere volunteers but (a)
they accrue benefits only as part of ther remuneration from the employer and
(b) they are settlors to the extent that they too pay contributions. There are therefore associated contractual in
addition to trust relationships between the employer and members.
pension trustee’s main duties
-
to know the terms of the trust;
-
to act solely in the interest of the beneficiaries;
-
to receive contributions;
-
to hold and invest the scheme’s assets;
-
to pay benefits in accordance with the trust documents;
-
to consider whether and if so how to exercise ther powers; and
-
to wind the scheme up as required by the trust documents.
the exercise of powers and discretions
In addition to duties, which they must perform, trustees
have discretions, which they must decide whether or not to exercise and, if
they decide to exercise them, how to do so.
The discretions can arise because they are required by the terms of the
trust, eg a decision which of a number of possible beneficiaries is to receive
all or a part of a lump sum payable on a member’s death. Discretions can also arise in deciding how to
perform, eg, investment duties or even because the trust document do not state
clearly what is intended. The main principles
about the exercise of discretions are the following.
(a)
Trustees must ascertain the extent of their
powers and their purpose.
(b)
Discretionary
trusts and powers must be exercised in good faith for the purpose for which
they are conferred, and not for any collateral purpose.
(c)
Trustees, when
exercising a discretionary power, must take into account all factors which are
relevant, not take into account irrelevant, irrational or improper factors.
(d)
A judge may
disagree with the manner in which trustees have exercised their discretion,
but, unless they can be seen to have taken into account irrelevant, improper or
irrational factors, or unless their decision can be said to be one that no
reasonable body of trustees properly directing themselves could have reached, the
judge cannot interfere.
trustees’ duty of care
Trustees must take “in
managing trust affairs all those precautions which an ordinary prudent man of
business would take in managing similar affairs of his own” (re Speight (1883)
9 App. Cas. 1, with the addition by Lindley LJ in re Whitely, (1886) 33 ChD 347,
“The duty of trustee is not to take such
care only as a prudent man would take if he had only himself to consider: the
duty rather is to take such care as an ordinary prudent man would take if he
were minded to make an investment for the benefit of other people for whom he
felt morally bound to provide”. In other
words they must act carefully and reasonably.
trustees’ personal liability
Trustees have
unlimited personal liability. They are
accountable for all property that they receive or ought to have received into
the trust fund and must account to the trust fund for any shortfall. The first and foremost means of avoiding
liability is for trustees to ensure that they act within their authority and
that they act prudently and avoid negligence.
Following that there are the following principal further defences:
(a)
directions from the court under the
Trustee Act 1925, s57;
(b)
relief from liability by the court
under the Trustee Act 1925, s61;
(c)
exclusion of liability clauses in the
trust deed;
(d)
clause in the trust deed for indemnity
by the employer;
(e)
clause in the trust deed for indemnity
out of the trust fund;
(f)
consent by the beneficiary; and
(g)
insurance.
personal or corporate trustee
A limited liability company may be a trustee, in which
case the persons who would have been trustees would be directors of the
company. The requirement for one third
of the trustees to be member nominated also requires one third of the directors
of a corporate trustee to be member nominated.
Where a company is the trustee, it is the company and not
its directors which is liable as summarised above. The directors’ duties are to the company not
the trust.
Other advantages of a corporate trustee is continuity and
not need to change contracts or transfer
property on changes of the directors, the ease of changing directors (as opposed to trustees) and changing
the decision making procedures.
Disadvantages are that civil penalties are higher on corporate
than individual trustees, (respective maxima of £50,000 and £5.000) there are
company law restrictions on exoneration and indemnity clauses and, assuming
that the trustee company is not trust
corporation, a second trustee is needed to give a valid receipt on the sale of
land: Law of Property Act 1925, s27.
END
copyright Roderick Ramage
click below to
return to list of pension law articles
return to list of other law articles