Delegation of trustees’ functions: agents, nominees, custodians and powers of attorney under the Trustee Act 2000, Trustee Delegation Act 1999, Trustee Act 1925 and TOLATA 1996 (England and Wales)

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Practice notes

Duty to act personally

As a matter of principle, the basic rule is that a trustee must act in person because the settlor personally selected that individual for their specific skill or insight into the beneficiaries, and their affairs. The Trustee Delegation Act 1999 (TDA 1999) allows trustees, in defined situations, to delegate on an individual basis. The Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000) outlines the trustees’ default powers of collective delegation where the trust deed does not confer broader express powers. In essence, trustees may pass on most administrative tasks, but not dispositive powers.

Agents, nominees and custodians

Under the TrA 2000, the management of trust assets may now be entrusted to others, and trustees can appoint specified persons to serve as nominees for the trust.

Collective delegation

TrA 2000, Pt IV (ss 11–27) provides for trustees to delegate administrative powers and discretions. This operates subject to any limitation or exclusion imposed by the trust instrument, or by any enactment or subordinate legislation; any such delegation is bounded by those express constraints.

Agents

TrA 2000 permits the trustees of a trust to delegate any or all of their delegable functions to an agent, although eligibility to act as an agent is curtailed by the Act...

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Web page updated on 30/05/2026

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