Charity trustees

Charity trustees

No charity can function without trustees. Their appointment has to follow strict rules and there are restrictions on who may be trustees. They have very specific duties and obligations as well as powers.

Incorporation of charity trustees

Where a charity is established as a trust, the fact that its properties, investments and contracts are vested in the individual trustees means that all those assets have to be assigned or novated each time the composition of the body of trustees changes (eg on death, or retirement, or the appointment of a new trustee). One way to avoid this process is for the charity trustees to incorporate themselves as a body corporate under Part 12 of the Charities Act 2011. This allows the charity’s assets to be vested in a perpetual, corporate trustee, while individual trustees continue to be appointed and removed in the usual way and continue to administer the charity with the same powers and duties as before.

Incorporation of the trustees is not the same as incorporating the charity as a body corporate (usually by way of a company limited by guarantee). Under Part 12 of the Charities Act

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