Various Incapacitated Persons, Re (Appointment of Trust Corporations As Deputies) [2018] EWCOP 3

Judgment looking at the Court’s concerns, where an application has been made to appoint a Trust Corporation as a Deputy, about the information required for the Court to be satisfied that the corporation is a fit and proper legal person to hold such appointment.

The case involved 36 applicants covering 11 different trust corporations, all of which are affiliated to solicitor practices. 

In this judgment HHJ Hilder reviews the relevant law concerning the appointment of deputies and notes changes in the commercial legal landscape since the introduction of the MCA 2005. From [31] she summarises her conclusions on each point.

These are helpfully then presented in Schedule 2 to the main judgment reproduced below.

Read the full text of the judgment on Bailii

Information/undertakings to be provided by an authorised person on behalf of a trust corporation seeking to be appointed as property and affairs deputy

The proposed deputy (the trust corporation) is a trust corporation within the meaning of section 64(1) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and can lawfully act as such; and the trust corporation will inform the Public Guardian immediately if that ceases to be the case.
 
The trust corporation will comply with the Public Guardian’s published standards for professional deputies.
 
EITHER 
    (i) The trust corporation is authorised by the SRA;

OR 
   (ii) all the directors of the trust corporation are solicitors and it employs no one (save to the extent that it employs a company secretary); and

   (iii) the trust corporation will retain its associated legal practice to carry out all practical work in relation to the management of the incapacitated person’s property and affairs; and

   (iv) the trust corporation is covered by the professional indemnity insurance policy of its associated authorised legal practice on the same terms as that practice;

The trust corporation will notify the Public Guardian immediately if there is any change to any of the matters set out in paragraph 3 above.
 
The trust corporation undertakes that it (or where relevant its associated authorised legal practice) will maintain insurance cover that:

   (i) covers the work of the trust corporation and

   (ii) is compliant with SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions.

The trust corporation will lodge a copy of the insurance policy referred to in paragraph 5 above with the Public Guardian on appointment and will inform the Public Guardian immediately if there is any reduction in the terms or level of the insurance cover. ​