Trustee Ordinance: Commentary and Annotations

This annotation of the Trustee Ordinance (Cap.29) traces the origins of the Ordinance and comments on how they changed or modernized the common law. Changes brought about by the Trust Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013 are explained with reference to different sources they draw on.

Not limited to being a commentary, the annotations attempt to set statutory provisions in their operational context. Cross references direct the reader to other relevant provisions and highlight any differences in the application of other similar provisions.

This publication uses English cases to analyze statutory provisions and Hong Kong cases to illustrate the practical application.

The major changes of the Trust Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013 are:
1. Introducing a statutory duty of care which would apply in respect of the exercise of powers by trustees in specified situations
2. Appointment of agents, nominees and custodians by trustees
3. Appointment and retirement of trustees on beneficiaries’ directions
4. Remuneration and reimbursement of trustees
5. Control of exemption clauses
6. Explicitly recognising the trustees’ power
7 Enlarging trustees’ investment powers
8. Enlarging trustees’ power to insure trust property

In addition to the above major changes, the 2013 Amendment Ordinance amended the Perpetuities and Accumulations Ordinance. This was to abolish the rule against perpetuity and the rule against accumulations with prospective effect for all new non-charitable trusts, and allow Settlors to set up perpetual trusts in Hong Kong.