Isle of Man trust law amendments under consultation

With the Trust and Trustees Bill 2022, the Treasury of the Isle of Man aims at modernising the Country’s trust legislation in order to provide more certainty and clarity to users, as well as making the jurisdiction more competitive in the provision of trust services.

The main amendments to the existing will regard the following Clauses of the Bill:

  • Clause 4: which recognises the power of a settlor to restrict a beneficiary’s access to trust information in the trust deed. Specifically, this clause allows the trustee to refuse to disclose information in specific circumstances.
  • Clause 5: with a proposal by the treasury to introduce statutory recognition in respect of contracts entered into by trustees with themselves in their capacity as trustee of another trust;
  • Clause 6: proposing that trustees’ personal liability would be limited to the assets of the trust;
  • Clause 7: providing that powers of appointment are to be considered ‘exclusive’ powers unless the trust instrument expressly provides otherwise;
  • Clauses 11, 12 and 13: which will restrict the court’s power to void a trustee decision to cases where the trustees have acted in breach of their fiduciary duties;
  • Clause 14: which reduces the time limits on litigation for breach of trust from six to three years.

The proposal will be up for consultation until the end of May 2022.

SOURCE: https://consult.gov.im