For UK financial advisers only, not approved for use by retail customers. Click here for the customer website.
PruAdviser is now part of M&G plc, so we’ve been upgrading our website. You’ll no longer see pruadviser.co.uk in your browser address bar, or indeed if you have used a search engine (eg google), you’ll now see mandg.com/pru/adviser.
You'll still see reference to “pruadviser” when you login to our online services. Please read through this page if you are having issues logging in to our online services.
PruAdviser on-line services will be unavailable from 18:00 on Saturday 9 July until 12:30 on Sunday 10 July for website maintenance.
7 min read 29 Mar 22
Trustees must understand their various duties and responsibilities in relation to:
Trustees have wide investment powers through the Trustee Act 2000 (E&W), Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and Trustee Act (Northern Ireland) 2001. This means that unless the trust deed restricts the type of investment, they are able to invest in any type of asset.
When choosing appropriate assets to invest in, the trustees must consider the purpose of the trust and the needs of the beneficiaries and apply the standard investment criteria accordingly, these are:
A trustee must from time to time review the investments and consider whether having regard to the standard investment criteria, investments need to be varied.
Trustees must act impartially between the beneficiaries and ensure that one beneficiary does not benefit at the expense of another. Consider for example an interest in possession trust where one beneficiary is entitled to income with others entitled to capital on the death of that person. Those ‘competing’ beneficiaries should be treated fairly unless perhaps the settlor had made it clear that one class of beneficiary was to be preferred over another.
For example, if the trust states that income is to be provided for a beneficiary, then trustees should consider income producing assets such as OEICs or unit trusts. Investment bonds are not income producing assets and withdrawals from bonds are a return of capital not ‘income’. Where a beneficiary is only entitled to income, then the trustees should bear in mind that an insurance bond is not appropriate:
It may be that the trust gives the trustees power to pay capital to that income beneficiary. In this case, the trustees are following the terms of the trust, but they still need to consider the impact of eroding the capital for the remaindermen.
A trustee must not place himself or herself in a position in which his or her duties as a trustee conflicts with his or her private interests.
The trustees can only act within the terms of the trust deed. If they act outside those powers they are said to be in breach of trust. A breach of trust will cause some detriment to the beneficiaries. As trustees can only act in the interests of their beneficiaries a newly appointed trustee is obliged to check that there have been no previous breaches of trust. If there have been such breaches the situation must be remedied. The beneficiaries may absolve the trustees from responsibility for the consequences of the breach. Otherwise the trustees have to make good any loss to the trust fund from their own resources.
A trustee has a general duty not make any profit from the fact that he or she acts as trustee. Professional trustees may charge for their services in a number of circumstances:
HMRC make it clear that a record of trust income and expenses must be kept to complete the trust and estate tax return and pass information to beneficiaries.
The HMRC guidance details:
Clearly a non-income producing insurance bond will simplify the accounting and record keeping requirements.
The legal responsibility for registration, where appropriate, with the Trust Registration Service, lies with the trustees.
In a discretionary trust the trustees will have a power to accumulate income. Accumulation is the process whereby, under the terms of a trust, the trustees are authorised or required to accumulate income, thereby converting it into capital.
In “interest in possession” trusts the beneficiary (or beneficiaries) having the right to income must receive that income – within a reasonable period of the trust’s accounting year end. The beneficiary will need to include this income in his or her self-assessment tax return so needs to know the quantum of income fairly promptly.
© Prudential 2022
"Prudential" is a trading name of Prudential Distribution Limited. Prudential Distribution Limited is registered in Scotland. Registered Office at Craigforth, Stirling FK9 4UE. Registered number SC212640. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Prudential Distribution Limited is part of the same corporate group as the Prudential Assurance Company Limited. The Prudential Assurance Company Limited and Prudential Distribution Limited are direct/indirect subsidiaries of M&G plc which is a holding company registered in England and Wales with registered number 11444019 and registered office at 10 Fenchurch Avenue, London EC3M 5AG, some of whose subsidiaries are authorised and regulated, as applicable, by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. These companies are not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc, a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America or Prudential plc, an international group incorporated in the United Kingdom.