Professional trustee meaning

Trustees Verify who the present charity trustees are. Examine historic appointment and retirement deeds to validate earlier changes to the board. Consider whether any current trustees have obvious conflicts of interest. Trust instrument Review the trust instrument and identify the powers it grants. Record any express limits on exercising those powers. Note whether any of the charity’s land is functional, designated, or held in specie. Land and leases Identify the charity’s property holdings and carry out the following checks: Confirm that title to all land is current, checking whether required deeds or transfers were executed after trustee changes, or reliance is placed on statutory vesting; verify proper execution of all documents. Confirm that appropriate restrictions have been entered on the title register. Confirm, so far as possible, that the land was duly authorised on acquisition, and review every lease where the charity is landlord or tenant; note any onerous obligations, and check whether required notices were served after...

Original news Mr K (CAS-44560-Q1C8)—12 September 2025 Summary The Pensions Ombudsman upheld a complaint concerning a scheme’s inadequate due diligence on a high-risk investment. The professional trustee was found to have breached both common law and statutory duties by committing funds to storage pods and airport parking. As the investments lacked diversification and were overly speculative, no reasonable trustee would have proceeded. The determination underscores that a professional trustee can be accountable for investment losses even where the member was heavily engaged in making the decision... What were the facts? Mr K was a member of the Blick-Horsham Limited Executive Pension Scheme (the Scheme), a small self-administered scheme (SSAS). The Scheme’s trustees were Rowanmoor Trustees Limited (RTL) and Mr K. He proposed investing in storage pods and airport parking via Store First Limited (Store) and Park First Limited (Park). In February 2015, RTL warned Mr K that the proposed investments featured a two-year break clause and advised him to consider how a replacement tenant might be...

The Tintometer Ltd and other company v Pitmans (a firm) and another company [2024] EWHC 370 (Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision offers concrete guidance for advisers acting for a party added to ongoing proceedings and contemplating an application to set aside an order already made before its joinder. In such a scenario, a newly joined party lacks standing to apply to set aside any pre-existing order under CPR 3.3(5). The judgment also serves as a timely reminder that, when exercising its discretion to substitute a party as a defendant under CPR 17.2, the court will assess whether doing so accords with the overall interests of justice, and will properly weigh any material prospective prejudice to the proposed defendant. What was the background? The first defendant, Pitmans, sought to strike out the claimants’ professional negligence claim. The claim concerned advice given by Pitmans, then operating as a traditional unincorporated partnership, to the claimants in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, Pitmans (UK)...

WTW reports that 50% of UK defined benefit schemes now utilise a professional trustee. It found that 48% of appointments are corporate sole trustees, in which a single firm takes full responsibility for a scheme’s trustee board. The balance is split between trustee chairs at 27% and co-trustees at 25%. Findings are based on a survey of 15 of the largest professional trustee firms, covering nearly 2,500 appointments. WTW observes that the size of a scheme strongly shapes the professional trustee model selected...

ARCHIVED This archived Practice Note is no longer maintained and is provided for background only. Moreover, some links may not take you to the provisions as they stood on the date this Practice Note’s guidance was published. This year’s annual round-up reviews notable developments from 2017 and signals what is coming in 2018. It covers: Supreme Court rulings in BPE Solicitors v Hughes-Holland and Tiuta v De Villiers on recovery of loss and the assessment of damages in professional negligence claims; Supreme Court decisions in Globalia v Fulton on mitigation, and Lowick Rose v Swynson concerning unjust enrichment and transferred loss; and From the High Court, an important judgment by Coulson J in Russell v Stone on limitation standstill agreements. Reviewing 2017 Professional negligence—recovering damages and the SAAMCO principle What happened? In BPE Solicitors v Hughes-Holland [2017] UKSC 21, the Supreme Court dismissed the trustee in bankruptcy’s appeal, determining that the losses the bankrupt incurred in a...

For general information on trustees’ powers and duties, see: Trustees—overview. Precedents for appointing trustees are set out in Practice Note: Fast find key trust precedents. First steps When a replacement is needed—whether a trustee intends to retire or there is a wish to add particular expertise—prepare a brief role description specifying the required skills, experience and knowledge. Agree the recruitment procedure and allocate who will do what, ensuring any process mandated by the trust instrument is followed. Consider the beneficiaries’ views; this might include consulting the settlor, if living, or a protector. Identifying potential trustees The most direct route to candidates is personal referral or word of mouth. In principle, anyone connected with the trust—trustees or beneficiaries—may put forward a name. Where the departing trustee is a professional adviser, they will often recommend a successor from their own firm or the wider industry. ...

What does this Practice Note cover? This Practice Note describes the duties and functions of a bond trustee appointed under an English law trust deed for a bond issue. A trustee is not a feature of every bond offering. Some issues proceed without one. The issuer chooses whether to use a trustee or a fiscal agent—see Practice Note: Parties in an issue of debt securities—Fiscal agent or trustee. Bringing in a trustee has significant implications for the issuer and for bondholders (see: Reasons for appointing a trustee below). In this Practice Note, ‘bonds’ is used as a catch-all term for debt securities of all kinds (such as bonds, notes and commercial paper). Be aware, however, that alternative considerations can arise in structured finance deals. For an explanation of the difference between ‘bonds’ and ‘notes’ and the definition of ‘commercial paper’, see Practice Note: Types of debt securities. Who is the bond trustee? The trustee is appointed by the issuer and serves as the go-between for the issuer...