Hong Kong Ordinances

TRUSTEE ORDINANCE - SECT 25

Power to employ agents

(1) Trustees or personal representatives may, instead of acting personally,
employ and pay an agent, whether a solicitor, banker, stockbroker, or other
person, to transact any business or do any act required to be transacted or
done in the execution of the trust, or the administration of the testator's or
intestate's estate, including the receipt and payment of money, and shall be
entitled to be allowed and paid all charges and expenses so incurred, and
shall not be responsible for the default of any such agent if employed in good
faith.

(2) Trustees or personal representatives may appoint any person to act as
their agent or attorney for the purpose of selling, converting, collecting,
getting in, and executing and perfecting insurances of, or managing or
cultivating, or otherwise administering any property, movable or immovable,
subject to the trust or forming part of the testator's or intestate's estate,
in any place outside Hong Kong, or executing or exercising any discretion or
trust or power vested in them in relation to any such property, with such
ancillary powers, and with and subject to such provisions and restrictions as
they may think fit, including a power to appoint substitutes, and shall not,
by reason only of their having made such appointment, be responsible for any
loss arising thereby. (Amended 9 of 1993 s. 7)

(3) Without prejudice to such general power of appointing agents as aforesaid-

   (a)  a trustee may appoint a solicitor to be his agent to receive and give
        a discharge for any money or valuable consideration or property
        receivable by the trustee under the trust, by permitting the solicitor
        to have the custody of, and to produce, a deed having in the body
        thereof or endorsed thereon a receipt for such money or valuable
        consideration or property, the deed being executed, or the endorsed
        receipt being signed, by the person entitled to give a receipt for
        that consideration;

   (b)  a trustee shall not be chargeable with breach of trust by reason only
        of his having made or concurred in making any such appointment; and
        the production of any such deed by the solicitor shall have the same
        statutory validity and effect as if the person appointing the
        solicitor had not been a trustee;

   (c)  a trustee may appoint a banker or solicitor to be his agent to receive
        and give a discharge for any money payable to the trustee under or by
        virtue of a policy of insurance, by permitting the banker or solicitor
        to have the custody of and to produce the policy of insurance with a
        receipt signed by the trustee, and a trustee shall not be chargeable
        with a breach of trust by reason only of his having made or concurred
        in making any such appointment: Provided that nothing in this
        subsection shall exempt a trustee from any liability which he would
        have incurred if this Ordinance and any enactment replaced by this
        Ordinance had not been passed, in case he permits any such money,
        valuable consideration, or property to remain in the hands or under
        the control of the banker or solicitor for a period longer than is
        reasonably necessary to enable the banker or solicitor, as the case
        may be, to pay or transfer the same to the trustee. This subsection
        applies whether the money or valuable consideration or property was or
        is received before or after the commencement of this Ordinance. [cf.
        1925 c. 19 s. 23 U.K.]