History Repeating: A Trustee De Son Tort In Jersey

Becoming a trustee, or ceasing to act in that capacity, is one which will be familiar to all professionals in the offshore trust industry. It is vital that the process is carried out in a manner which is consistent with the interests of the beneficiaries, and complies with the relevant mechanism for the retirement and appointment of trustees. Those mechanics can be found either in the trust instrument itself, or if the trust instrument is silent and governed by Jersey law, in Article 17 of the Trusts (Jersey) Law 1984 (the Trusts Law). The dangers of getting the procedure wrong are exacerbated when the appointment of a new trustee is carried out in-house, so that there is no third party to review the procedure. If a trustee acts without being properly appointed for a long period of time, it may well mean a "lot" and not just a "little" bit of history repeating to remedy the position.