Trustee Act 1925

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1925 c. 19
Year1925


Trustee Act, 1925

(15 & 16 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 19.

An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to trustees in England and Wales.

[9th April 1925]

B e it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I Investments.

Part I.

Investments.

S-1 Authorised investments.

1 Authorised investments.

(1) A trustee may invest any trust funds in his hands, whether at the time in a state of investment or not, in manner following, that is to say:

( a ) In any of the parliamentary stocks or public funds or Government securities of the United Kingdom;

( b ) On real or heritable securities in the United Kingdom, including the security of a charge on freehold land by way of legal mortgage and a charge under section thirty-three of the Finance Act, 1896 ;

( c ) In the stock of the Bank of England or the Bank of Ireland;

( d ) In India Seven, Five and a half, Four and a half, Three and a half, Three and Two and a half per cent. stock, or in any other capital stock which may at any time be issued by the Secretary of State in Council of India under the authority of any Act of Parliament, and charged on the revenues of India, or any other securities the interest in sterling whereon is payable out of and charged on the revenues of India;

( e ) In any securities the interest of which is for the time being guaranteed by Parliament;

( f ) In consolidated stock created by the Metropolitan Board of Works, or by the London County Council, or in debenture stock created by the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District, or in metropolitan water stock;

( g ) In the debenture or rentcharge, or guaranteed or preference, stock of any railway company in the United Kingdom incorporated by special Act of Parliament, and having during each of the ten years last past before the date of investment paid a dividend at the rate of not less than three per centum on its ordinary stock;

( h ) In the stock of any railway or canal company in the United Kingdom whose undertaking is leased in perpetuity or for a term of not less than two hundred years at a fixed rental to any such railway company as is mentioned in paragraph ( g ) of this subsection, either alone or jointly with any other railway company;

( i ) In the debenture stock of any company owning or operating a railway in India the interest in sterling on which is paid or guaranteed by the Secretary of State in Council of India;

( j ) In the ‘B’ annuities of the Eastern Bengal, the East Indian, the Scinde Punjaub and Delhi, Great Indian Peninsula and Madras Railways, or in any securities substituted therefor, and any like annuities which may at any time after the commencement of this Act be created on the purchase of any other railway by the Secretary of State in Council of India, and charged on the revenues of India, and which may be authorised by Act of Parliament to be accepted by trustees in lieu of any stock held by them in the purchased railway; also in deferred annuities comprised in the register of holders of annuity Class D and annuities comprised in the register of annuitants Class C of the East Indian Railway Company;

( k ) In the stock of any company owning or operating a railway in India upon which a fixed or minimum dividend in sterling is paid or guaranteed by the Secretary of State in Council of India, or upon the capital of which the interest is so guaranteed;

( l ) In the debenture or guaranteed or preference stock of any company in the United Kingdom established for the supply of water for profit, and incorporated by special Act of Parliament or by Royal Charter, and having during each of the ten years last past before the date of investment paid a dividend of not less than five per centum on its ordinary stock;

( m ) In nominal or inscribed stock issued, or to be issued, under the authority of any Act of Parliament or Provisional Order, by the corporation of any municipal borough in the United Kingdom having, according to the returns of the last census prior to the date of investment, a population exceeding fifty thousand, or by any county council in the United Kingdom;

( n ) In nominal or inscribed stock issued or to be issued by any commissioners incorporated by Act of Parliament for the purpose of supplying water, and having a compulsory power of levying rates over an area having according to the returns of the last census prior to the date of investment a population exceeding fifty thousand, provided that during each of the ten years last past before the date of investment the rates levied by such commissioners have not exceeded eighty per centum of the amount authorised by law to be levied;

( o ) In any stocks, funds, or securities authorised under the Colonial Stock Act, 1900 , or any Act extending the same, but subject to any restrictions thereby imposed;

( p ) In any local bonds issued under the Housing (Additional Powers) Act, 1919 , and mortgages of any fund or rate granted after the passing of that Act under the authority of any Act or Provisional Order by a local authority (including a county council) which is authorised to issue local bonds under that Act;

( q ) In any stock or securities issued in respect of any loan raised by the Government of Northern Ireland;

( r ) In any of the stocks, funds, or securities for the time being authorised for the investment of cash under the control or subject to the order of the court;

and may also from time to time vary any such investment.

(2) For the purposes of this section—

( a ) the London and North Eastern Railway Company, the Southern Railway Company, the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company, and the Great Western Railway Company shall each be treated as if it were a railway company in Great Britain incorporated by a special Act of Parliament which had in each of the ten years immediately before the date of amalgamation paid a dividend at a rate of not less than three per centum on its ordinary stock, and, for the purposes of this provision the date of amalgamation means—

(i) as respects the London and North Eastern Railway Company and the Southern Railway Company the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-three; and

(ii)as respects the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company and the Great Western Railway Company the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-three;

( b ) a railway or canal company in Northern Ireland whose system is situate partly in Northern Ireland and partly in the Irish Free State shall not be deemed to be a railway or canal company in Northern Ireland.

S-2 Purchase at a premium of redeemable stocks; change of character of investment.

2 Purchase at a premium of redeemable stocks; change of character of investment.

(1) A trustee may under the powers of this Act invest in any of the securities mentioned or referred to in section one of this Act, notwithstanding that the same may be redeemable, and that the price exceeds the redemption value.

Provided that, in the case of any stock mentioned or referred to in paragraphs ( g ), ( i ), ( k ), ( l ), ( m ), ( o ), ( p ) and ( q ) of subsection (1) of section one of this Act, which is liable to be redeemed at par or at some other fixed rate, a trustee shall not be entitled to purchase the stock—

( a ) at a price exceeding fifteen per centum above par or such other fixed rate; nor

( b ) if the stock is liable to be so redeemed as aforesaid within fifteen years of the date of purchase, at a price exceeding its redemption value.

(2) A trustee may retain until redemption any redeemable stock, fund, or security which may have been purchased in accordance with the powers of this Act, or any statute replaced by this Act.

S-3 Discretion of trustees.

3 Discretion of trustees.

Every power conferred by the preceding sections shall be exercised according to the discretion of the trustee, but subject to any consent or direction required by the instrument, if any, creating the trust or by statute with respect to the investment of the trust funds.

S-4 Power to retain investment which has ceased to be authorised.

4 Power to retain investment which has ceased to be authorised.

A trustee shall not be liable for breach of trust by reason only of his continuing to hold an investment which has ceased to be an investment authorised by the trust instrument or by the general law.

S-5 Enlargement of powers of investment.

5 Enlargement of powers of investment.

(1) A trustee having power to invest in real securities may invest and shall be deemed always to have had power to invest—

( a ) on mortgage of property held for an unexpired term of not less than two hundred years, and not subject to a reservation of rent greater than a shilling a year, or to any right of redemption or to any condition for re-entry, except for non-payment of rent; and

( b ) on any charge, or upon mortgage of any charge, made under the Improvement of Land Act, 1864 .

(2) A trustee having power to invest in real securities may accept the security in the form of a charge by way of legal mortgage, and may, in exercise of the statutory power, convert an existing mortgage into a charge by way of legal mortgage.

(3) A trustee having power to invest in the...

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