General investment power

The powers possessed by trustees to administer a trust effectively emanate from statute, mainly the Trustee Act 1925 (TA 1925) and the Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000), as supplemented by the terms of the trust instrument, except for:

1. •

   trustees of occupational pension schemes

2. •

   authorised unit trusts

3. •

   charitable common investment schemes

Prior to TrA 2000, in the absence of express powers the trustees had to operate within the terms of the Trustee investments Act 1961 (TIA 1961). TIA 1961 was largely repealed by TrA 2000, which came into force on 1 February 2001. TIA 1961 was restrictive, eg trustees could only make specified 'authorised' investments, and due to this, it became common practice in trust instruments to widen the statutory powers to permit trustees to invest in any suitable type of investment as if they were an absolute owner.

TrA 2000, s 3 allows trustees to make any kind of investment that they would be entitled to make if they were the absolute owners of the trust assets, regardless of when the