This Act may be cited as the Trustee Amendment Act, 1946, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Trustee Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

For the purposes of this Act and of the principal Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

For the purposes of this Act and of the principal Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the expressions “trust” and “trustee” extend to cases where there are two or more trustees and to cases where the Public Trustee is the trustee.

This Act applies to trusts, including executor-ships and administratorships, constituted or created either before or after the passing of this Act.

The powers conferred by this Act on any trustee are in addition to the powers conferred by the instrument (if any) creating the trust; but those powers, unless otherwise stated, apply only if and so far as a contrary intention is not expressed in the instrument (if any) creating the trust, and have effect subject to the terms of that instrument.

Where any property is held by a trustee in trust for any person for any interest whatsoever, whether vested or contingent, then, subject to any prior interests or charges affecting that property,—

During the infancy of any such person, if his interest so long continues, the trustee shall accumulate all the residue of that income in the way of compound interest by investing the same and the resulting income thereof from time to time in authorized investments, and shall hold those accumulations as follows:—

but the trustee may, at any time during the infancy of that person if his interest so long continues, apply those accumulations, or any part thereof, as if they were income arising in the then current year.

This section applies in the case of a contingent interest only if the limitation or trust carries the intermediate income of the property, but it applies to a future or contingent legacy by the parent of, or a person standing in loco parentis to, the legatee, if and for such period as, under the general law, the legacy carries interest for the maintenance of the legatee, and in any such case as last aforesaid the rate of interest shall (if the income available is sufficient and subject to any rules of Court to the contrary) be four per centum per annum.

This section applies to a vested annuity in like manner as if the annuity were the income of property held by a trustee in trust to pay the income thereof to the annuitant for the same period for which the annuity is payable, save that in any case accumulations made during the infancy of the annuitant shall be held in trust for the annuitant or his personal representatives absolutely.

A trustee may at any time or times pay or apply any capital money subject to a trust, for the maintenance or education (including past maintenance or education), or the advancement or benefit, in such manner as he may, in his absolute discretion, think fit, of any person entitled to the capital of the trust property or of any share thereof, whether absolutely or contingently on his attaining any specified age or on the occurrence of any other event, or subject to a gift over on his death under any specified age or on the occurrence of any other event, and whether in possession or in remainder or reversion, and any such payment or application may be made notwithstanding that the interest of that person is liable to be defeated by the exercise of a power of appointment or revocation, or to be diminished by the increase of the class to which he belongs:

Provided that—

This section applies only where the trust property consists of moneys or securities, or of property held upon trust for, or with a power of, sale, calling in, and conversion, and the moneys or securities or the proceeds of the sale, calling in, and conversion are not by statute or in equity considered as land, or applicable as capital money for the purposes of the Settled Land Act, 1908.

The foregoing provisions of this Act are in substitution for the enactments specified in the Schedule hereto, and those enactments are hereby accordingly repealed.

Section eighty-one of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1936, is hereby amended by repealing subsection four.