Deed of Appointment and Retirement

I am dealing with a trust which has two trustees, both of whom wish to retire. There are two new people willing to become trustees in their place, ie there are to be no continuing trustees.

I am about to draft a Deed(s). In order to avoid there being a brief period with no trustees, do I need to draft two Deeds? The first Deed would have the existing trustees continue and appoint the two new trustees. The second would be a Deed of Retirement of current trustees.

Alternatively can I draft one Deed of Appointment and Retirement, with the current Trustees appointing the new trustees and then the current trustees retiring?

Or am I unnecessarily complicating matters?

Hazel Jones

It is usual for all the necessary provisions to be a single deed – a deed of appointment and retirement (DART).

Provided that the actions are in the correct order – the appointment of the new trustees, followed by the immediate retirement of the current trustees - the changeover should be seamless.

The main issue may be the level of indemnity the outgoing trustees would look for, and the incoming trustees might be willing to give. Having said that, many trust instruments include provision for the indemnification of outgoing trustees, and so the first question would be whether the trust instrument deals with this.

Paul Saunders