Trustee Knowledge Series - Intermediate Paper four - Trustee Delegation
“I’m going from doing all of the work to having to delegate the work – which is almost harder for me than doing the work myself” – Alton Brown.
After the experience of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, many professional trustees would no doubt agree. Unsurprisingly however, some beneficiaries may not! What duties do trustees actually have and what protection do they have?
Trustee delegation is nowadays commonplace given the ever-increasing complexity of trust structures and underlying trust assets, but such delegation should not be treated with complacency if trustees are to avoid litigation. The starting point with delegation is the general English rule of delegatur non potest delegate which means a person to whom powers or duties have been delegated cannot delegate to another. This general rule has however been watered down and in some jurisdictions, such as Jersey, trustees are expressly permitted to delegate generally. The statutory position under the Trusts (Jersey) Law 1984 (the Law) can be summarised as follows:
For more specific advice on trusts in Jersey, we invite you to contact Giles Corbin or Michael Davies.
