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Fund Protection Ltd
Fund Protection Limited is a professional trustee company. Its role is to give personal strategy and planning
advice in relation to the use of trusts, including specifically:-
- Employee Benefit Trusts - especially for use for people oriented businesses
such as money-brokers, insurance brokers and incorporated professional practices, basing these trusts both in the United Kingdom
and internationally.
- Charitable Trusts - Fund Protection Limited has constituted
numerous charitable trusts including military trusts, as well as education and environmantal trusts such as Earthwatch, child
Bereavement Trust etc.
- Pension Funds - Fund Protection Limited has advised on the expansion
of pension schemes beyond the normal defined benefit and defined contribution retirement benefit schemes to those with
discretionary approval such as SIPPs and SSaSs. The company also advises on the relevance of FURBS and overseas pensions for
international businesses and expatriates.
- Personal and Private Trust - Fund Protection Limited acts as Trusteee
and has implemented Declarations of Trust for many private families and for personal tax and estate planning purposes.
- Fund Protection Limited has devised a number of liability insurance
policies including Fund Protection Insurance (FPI) for protection of trustees and their trust funds.
Fund Protection
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Trustee's Powers
For the guidance of trustees or potential trustees there is
set out here a brief set of examples of the types of powers exercised by trustees, which can give rise to difficulties
or lead to dissension amongst beneficiaries. There is a distinction in any event between the powers of a trustee and his duties.
A trustee can be liable for breach of his duties. His liabilities for exercising powers wrongly can also lead to liability.
A duty is an imperative obligation, whilst a power will involve a high degree of discretion. Examples are:-
- A discretionary power to determine the
destination of trust assets, usually from a class of beneficiaries
- A power to administrate the trusts in various ways;
- A power to decide whether to pass trust assets to one or more individuals as beneficiaries
or to retain and accumulate the assets;
- A power to look after the interests of one or more beneficiaries in complete good
faith and in a way where the trustee cannot be released from his obligations;
- A power to exercise various discretions (by forming a judgement on circumstances
with particular consequences);
If a trustee exercises a power with some personal or other wrongful
motive, this is known as a 'fraud on a power'. Whilst not being fraud in the generally accepted sense, it is nevertheless
a culpable act, even if it is done innocently.
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Trustee's Duties
The duties of a trustee are not exhaustive, but some of the
are:-
- administration of the investments
of the trusts: in this a trustee must avoid acting negligently and reach a standard of conduct of a reasonably competent professional;
- carry out a fiduciary duty
involving acting in total good faith regardless of his own interests and preferring the intersts of the beneficiaries;
- perform to the requirements of
the trusts' governing documents as well as under trust law which imposes strict codes of conduct.
Co-Trustees
Whilst
some trusts o nly have one trustee, most trusts have more than one. Every trustee relies on his co-trustees to act correctly
and to fulfil his duties properly. Fund Protection Insurance extends to protection of trustees where a co-trustee has acted
wrongly. No insurance will protect a fraudulent or dishonest trustee, but an honest one can use FPI to protect himself and
the trusts funds from wrong doing by his co-trustee.
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