To act fairly and with impartiality towards Beneficiarie

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In fact, duty of care lies at the heart of the Trustee’s role. All Trustees are beholden to fiduciary duties, like a company’s Directors. This means that Trustees are jointly and severely liable for the actions they take (or don’t take) in respect of the Trust. These general duties are briefly summarised below:

Exercise reasonable care and skill, considering the capacity of their appointment and any specialist skill or knowledge i.e. acting as a professional or lay Trustee etc.;
To understand and carry out their obligations in line with the terms of the Trust;
To maintain and act in the interest of the Beneficiaries, keeping it separate from their own assets;
To avoid conflicts of interest e.g. situations where the Trustee may make decisions for malaysia mobile database personal gain, or gain of others by disadvantaging the Beneficiaries;

To exercise powers only for the purposes they have been given and in good faith
To provide an accurate account of the Trust Fund upon the Beneficiary’s request.
There is also a duty for the Trustee to act gratuitously unless otherwise stated within the terms of the Trust; but most modern arrangements make provision for reasonable remuneration.

In the UK, Trustees are not regulated and do not need to be licensed. However, in jurisdictions such as the Isle of Man, in addition to the statutory and common law protections available, Professional Trustees are regulated by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority and licensed under the Financial Services Act 2008.

As you can see, being a Trustee can be a complex undertaking, not least due to the legal obligations and subsequent liabilities incurred by the appointment. Further to this, there can be tax implications to consider that may create further liabilities for the Trustees. In the interests of brevity, we will cover various relevant considerations and best practices relevant to the role of Trustee within our next article in this series.