Trustees Act 1967
2020 REVISED EDITION
This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021
An Act relating to trustees.
[15 July 1967]
PART 1
PRELIMINARY
Short title
1.  This Act is the Trustees Act 1967.
Application of Act
2.—(1)  This Act, except where otherwise expressly provided, applies to trusts including, so far as this Act applies to them, executorships and administratorships constituted or created either before, on or after 1 September 1929.
(2)  The powers conferred by this Act on trustees are in addition to the powers conferred by the instrument (if any) creating the trust, but those powers, unless otherwise stated, apply if and so far only as a contrary intention is not expressed in the instrument (if any) creating the trust, and have effect subject to the terms of that instrument.
(3)  This Act does not affect the legality or validity of anything done before 1 September 1929, except as otherwise expressly provided.
Interpretation
3.  In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“authorised investments” means investments authorised by the instrument (if any) creating the trust for the investment of money subject to the trust, or by law;
“contingent right”, as applied to land, includes a contingent or executory interest, a possibility coupled with an interest, whether the object of the gift or limitation of the interest or possibility is or is not ascertained, also a right of entry, whether immediate or future, and whether vested or contingent;
“convey” and “conveyance”, as applied to any person, include the execution by that person of every necessary or suitable assurance (including an assent) for conveying, assigning, appointing, surrendering, or otherwise transferring or disposing of land of which the person is seised or possessed, or in which the person is entitled to a contingent right, either for the person’s whole estate or for any less estate, together with the performance of all formalities required by law for the validity of the conveyance;
“court” means the General Division of the High Court and includes, in any case where the trust concerned is an executorship or administratorship, a Family Court;
“debentures” includes debenture stock, loan stock, bonds, notes and any other document which creates or acknowledges a debt, whether constituting a charge on assets or not;
“general power of investment”, in relation to a trustee, means the general power of investment conferred on the trustee by section 4;
“income” includes rents and profits;
“instrument” includes a written law;
“land” has the meaning given by section 4 of the Land Titles Act 1993;
“mortgage”, “mortgagee” and “mortgagor” include “charge”, “chargee” and “chargor” respectively, and further include and relate to every estate and interest regarded in equity as merely a security for money, and every person deriving title under the original mortgagee;
“pay” and “payment”, as applied in relation to stocks and securities and in connection with the expression “into court”, include the deposit or transfer of the same in or into court;
“personal representative” means the executor, original or by representation, or administrator for the time being of a deceased person;
“possessed” applies to receipt of income of and to any vested estate less than a life interest in possession or in expectancy in any land;
“possession” includes receipt of rents and profits or the right to receive the same, if any;
“property” includes movable and immovable property, and any estate, share and interest in any property, movable or immovable, and any debt, and any thing in action, and any other right or interest, whether in possession or not;
“rights” includes estates and interests;
“sale” includes an exchange;
“securities” includes debentures, stocks, funds and shares; and so far as relates to payments into court has the same meaning as in the written laws relating to funds in court;
“securities payable to bearer” includes securities transferable by delivery or by delivery and endorsement;
“shareholders equity”, in relation to a company, means the total assets of the company less the total liabilities of the company as disclosed in —
(a)the last audited accounts of the company laid before a general meeting of the company in accordance with section 201 of the Companies Act 1967 (or the equivalent provision of the law of any other country which applies to that company); or
(b)if a prospectus has subsequently been registered by the company in accordance with the requirements of law, the accounts contained in that prospectus;
“solicitor” means an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court;
“standard investment criteria”, in relation to a trust, means the standard investment criteria set out in section 5(3);
“statutory duty of care”, in relation to a trustee, means the duty of care required to be exercised by the trustee under Part 1A;
“stock” includes fully paid-up shares, and, so far as relates to vesting orders made by the court under this Act, includes any fund, annuity or security transferable in books kept by any corporation, company or society, or by instrument of transfer either alone or accompanied by other formalities or otherwise, and any share or interest therein;
“transfer”, in relation to stock or securities, includes the performance and execution of every deed, power of attorney, act, and thing on the part of the transferor to effect and complete the title in the transferee;
“trust” does not include the duties incident to an estate conveyed by way of mortgage, but with this exception “trust” and “trustee” extend to implied and constructive trusts, and to cases where the trustee has a beneficial interest in the trust property, and to the duties incident to the office of a personal representative, and “trustee”, where the context admits, includes a personal representative, and “new trustee” includes an additional trustee;
“trust corporation” means the Public Trustee or a corporation either appointed by the court in any particular case to be a trustee, or licensed as a trust company under the Trust Companies Act 2005;
“trust for sale”, in relation to land, means an immediate binding trust for sale, whether or not exercisable at the request or with the consent of any person, and with or without power at discretion to postpone the sale;
“trustees for sale” means the persons (including a personal representative) holding land on trust for sale.
[11/2005; 21/2008; 16/2016; 40/2019]