Trustee Investments Act 1961
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| Long title | An Act to make fresh provision with respect to investment by trustees and persons having the investment powers of trustees, and by local authorities, and for purposes connected therewith. |
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| Citation | c 62 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 3 August 1961 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by |
Trustee Act 2000 Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 |
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Status: Repealed
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Trustee Investments Act 1961 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk | |
The Trustee Investments Act 1961 (c 62) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that covers where trustees can invest trust funds. Given the royal assent on 3 August 1961, it removed the "Statutory Lists" system and replaced it with sets of specific investment areas. The Act was heavily criticised for the way it set these areas out, particularly the requirement that trusts trying to invest in multiple areas would need to be permanently divided. A 1997 Law Commission paper called its terms "overly cautious and restrictive", suggesting that some trusts were underperforming as a result. The passing of the Trustee Act 2000 effectively nullified the 1961 Act's terms in relation to trustee investment, and the 2000 Act is now the principal piece of legislation in this area.
Prior to the 1961 Act, the areas trustees could invest in were based on the Trustee Act 1925, which set up a "Statutory Lists" system. The list contained only those investments available at the Post Office, along with land. It did not take into account the deprecation of currency or inflation, meaning that if the trustees invested in stocks and shares they were at risk of losing money simply because of the falling value of the pound sterling. As a result, even though the income from a trust might remain nominally constant, the real value of that income could be much reduced over the lifetime of the trust. This was recognised by lawyers, who had been advising their clients to structure trusts in such a way as to allow their trustees to invest in wider areas than the Statutory Lists. In 1952 the report of the Nathan Committee advocated reform, and the government published a White Paper on "Government Policy on Charitable Trusts in England and Wales" in 1955, which proposed a reform of the Statutory Lists system. This came about under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958, which allowed trustees to apply to the courts to widen their investment powers, a process that was expensive and slow.
A statement in the House of Lords on 13 May 1959 promised further reform, and a detailed White Paper was published in December. In November 1960 a Bill based on that report was introduced in the House of Lords, where it was much scrutinised by solicitors and barristers (particularly at the Committee stage) owing to its complexity. The Bill received its royal assent on 3 August 1961, and passed into law as the Trustee Investments Act 1961.
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