On the appointed day the trust department undertaking of the existing trust company shall, by virtue of this Act, vest in the New Company.

In respect of trust property vested in the New Company as aforesaid, the New Company shall hold and stand possessed of the same, whether alone or jointly with another or others, in the same manner and subject to the same trusts, directions, and duties, and in the same capacity, as the same was held by the existing trust company and as if the New Company were named in the will or other instrument governing the trust property in lieu of the existing trust company or any other trustee or fiduciary named therein whom the existing trust company may have succeeded in office.

In respect of fiduciary rights and obligations vested in the New Company as aforesaid, the same shall be exercisable by and binding upon the New Company whether alone or jointly with another or others in the same manner and to the same extent as they were exercisable by and binding upon the existing trustee company.

On and after the appointed day—

Where any person has died or dies before or after the appointed day having by his or her will appointed the existing trust company as an executor or trustee (whether alone or jointly with another or others) of his or her will and probate of the will has not been granted, the New Company shall have the same right to a grant of probate of the will or to have the trust estate transferred to or vested in it as the existing trust company would have had if this Act had not been passed.

Where any person named as executor who would be entitled to obtain probate of the will of any testator who has died before the appointed day, or where any person entitled to obtain administration of the estate of an intestate who has died before the appointed day, authorises or has authorised the existing trust company to apply to the High Court for administration with or without the will annexed under the provisions of the Trustee Companies Act 1967, the New Company shall have the same right to apply for and obtain a grant of administration with or without the will annexed as the existing trust company would have had if this Act had not been passed.

Any action, suit, arbitration, or proceeding, and any cause of action, arbitration, or proceeding which immediately before the appointed day is pending or existing by, against, or in favour of, the existing trust company in connection with or arising from its trust department business, and any cause of action, arbitration, or proceeding by, against, or in favour of the existing trust company in connection with or arising from its trust department business arising on or after the appointed day but arising in respect of anything done or omitted to be done before the appointed day, shall not abate or be discontinued or be in any way prejudicially affected by reason of the provisions of this Act, but the same may be prosecuted and, without amendment of any writ, pleading, or other document, continued and enforced by, against, or in favour of the New Company in its own name as and when it might have been prosecuted, continued, and enforced by, against, or in favour of the existing trust company if this Act had not been passed.

The court or other person making or entering any judgment, order, or award for the payment of any sum of money, whether ascertained or to be ascertained against the New Company in any action, suit, arbitration, or proceeding to which this section applies shall, at the request of any party in whose favour such judgment, order, or award, is being made or entered, make or enter the same against both the existing trust company and the New Company, and the same may, when so made or entered, be enforced against both the existing trust company and the New Company.

All Group Investment Funds established by the existing trust company under and pursuant to Part 2 of the Trustee Companies Act 1967 shall, from and after the appointed day, be and become vested in, and shall thereafter be administered in accordance with the said Act by, the New Company as if the same were duly established by the New Company and the New Company had determined the class or classes of investments for which the same were established.

All contracts, agreements, conveyances, deeds, leases, licences, and other instruments, undertakings, notices, instructions, orders, directions, mandates, indemnities, or authorities entered into or made with or addressed to the existing trust company in connection with or arising from its trust department business, whether alone or with any other person, before, and in force on, the appointed day shall, on and after that day, to the extent that they were previously binding upon and enforceable by, against, or in favour of the existing trust company, be binding upon, enforceable by and in full force and effect in every respect against, or in favour of, the New Company as fully and effectually as if, instead of the existing trust company, the New Company had been the person by whom they were entered into, with whom they were made, or to or by whom they were given or addressed, as the case may be.

A reference (express or implied) to the existing trust company in connection with or arising from its trust department business in any notice or other communication served, given, or sent on or after the appointed day in relation to any instrument or other document whatever subsisting immediately before the appointed day shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be read as a reference to the New Company.

No Registrar of Deeds or District Land Registrar, share registrar, bank, savings bank, or any other person charged with the keeping of any books, registers, or accounts, shall be obliged solely by reason of the provisions of sections 4, 6, and 7 or subsection (1) to change the name of the existing trust company to that of the New Company in his or her books, registers, or accounts, or in any document in his or her charge, but the presentation to any such Registrar, bank, or other person of any instrument—

shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence that the property is vested in the New Company or that the New Company is entitled to hold the same in its name.

Except as provided in subsections (1) and (3), nothing in this Act derogates from the provisions of the Land Transfer Act 1952.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act—

Where any shares in, debentures of, or interests in or made available by any corporation are by virtue of this Act vested in the New Company, a certificate signed by the General Manager or any Assistant General Manager of the New Company or by an officer acting under delegation from any such person certifying as to such vesting shall, notwithstanding any other enactment or rule of law or the provisions of any instrument, be registered by that corporation in the same manner in all respects as if it were a proper instrument of transfer duly stamped of those shares, debentures, or interests.

Any document, matter, or thing, which if this Act had not been passed would have been admissible in evidence in respect of any matter for or against the existing trust company, shall, on and after the appointed day, be admissible in evidence in respect of the same matter for or against the New Company.

In this section document has the same meaning as in section 2(1) of the Evidence Amendment Act (No 2) 1980.

Service of a document (as defined in section 2(1) of the Companies Act 1955)—

In addition to the powers conferred on the New Company by section 5, whenever the New Company is named as executor (whether alone or jointly with any other person) in the will of any testator, it shall be lawful for the New Company to be and act as executor (alone or jointly as aforesaid); and the New Company shall be entitled to apply for and obtain probate of the will and to perform and discharge all other the acts and duties of an executor as fully and effectually as a private individual may do when appointed executor.

In all cases in which the New Company is executor, administrator, trustee, receiver, committee, guardian, or attorney under power, the New Company shall, in addition to the liabilities and restrictions imposed by this Act, be subject in all respects to the same control and liability to removal as private individuals who may be appointed executors, administrators, trustees, receivers, committees, guardians, or attorneys.

If any trustee, executor or legatee, administrator or next-of-kin, or creditor entitled to or interested in any estate which has come or hereafter comes into the possession or under the control of the New Company is unable, upon application to the New Company, to obtain a sufficient account of the property and assets of which such estate shall consist and of the disposal and expenditure thereof or thereout, the trustee, executor or legatee, administrator or next-of-kin, or creditor shall be entitled to apply to the High Court or to any Judge thereof upon motion, after notice to the New Company, but without suit or petition, for an account; and if the court or Judge is of opinion that no sufficient account has been rendered by the New Company, the court or Judge shall order such account to be rendered by the New Company as to the court or Judge seems just; or if the court or Judge shall think that no sufficient case has been established to require the New Company to furnish an account, it shall be lawful for the court or Judge to dismiss the application; and the court or Judge shall have power in all cases to make such order as to costs either against the New Company or against the applicant, or as to payment of costs out of the estate, as to the court or Judge seems just.

It shall be lawful for the High Court or for any Judge thereof, on application under section 15, to order, in addition to or in substitution for any account to be rendered by the New Company, that a person to be named in the order shall examine the books and accounts of the New Company in reference to the estate in respect of which the order is made; and in that case the New Company shall deliver to the person named in such order a list of all books kept by the New Company, and shall produce to such person at all reasonable times when required the said books and all accounts, vouchers, papers, and other documents of the New Company, and shall afford to that person all necessary information and all other necessary facilities to enable that person to make the said examination; and the court or any Judge thereof shall have the same power as to the costs of such examination as is given by section 15 in reference to the costs of or occasioned by an application under that section.

So long as any estate in respect of which the New Company is executor, administrator, or trustee remains in whole or in part unadministered, it shall not be lawful to proceed to wind up the New Company voluntarily or for the Parent Company to dispose of any shares it holds in the New Company which are not fully paid up, unless with the sanction of the High Court or of a Judge thereof; and it shall be lawful for any person interested in such estate or who may have any claim in respect thereof to apply to that court or to a Judge thereof as is provided by the rules of court made pursuant to the Senior Courts Act 2016 to restrain the voluntary winding up of the New Company or to restrain the Parent Company from disposing of such shares; and the court or Judge shall in any and every such case have power to make such order in the matter as the circumstances of each case shall appear to the court or Judge to require.

Every sum of money held by the New Company as trustee, executor, guardian, or otherwise under this Act which remains unclaimed, and of which no lawful owner is known for a period of 6 years after its receipt by the New Company, shall at the end of each financial year be paid over by the New Company to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue under and in accordance with the Unclaimed Money Act 1971, and every such payment shall, to the extent of the money paid, discharge the New Company from the trust in respect of such money.

Amendment(s) incorporated in the Act(s).

On request by the New Company the Public Trustee shall surrender to the New Company all securities deposited with the Public Trustee by the existing trust company in regard to its trust department business or its trust department undertaking under and for the purposes of section 6(2) of the Trustee Companies Act 1967 and held by the Public Trustee immediately before the commencement of this section; and the receipt of the secretary of the New Company shall be a full and sufficient discharge to the Public Trustee for all such securities so surrendered by the Public Trustee and the Public Trustee shall not be concerned to see to the application thereof.

Notwithstanding the fiduciary rights, obligations, and liabilities of the New Company whether pursuant to this Act or otherwise, the New Company is hereby authorised to transact with the Parent Company or any subsidiary of the Parent Company or any company associated with the Parent Company any business in connection with any estate or trust property that it may administer from time to time where, after considering all the circumstances of the case (including appropriate business arrangements offered by other companies), the New Company is satisfied on reasonable grounds that it is in the best interests of the estate or trust property to do so; and, notwithstanding any enactment or rule of law to the contrary, the Parent Company or any subsidiary of the Parent Company or any company associated with the Parent Company shall be entitled to receive all fees, premiums, commissions, and other payments properly chargeable in respect of such business in the same manner as it or they would have been entitled to do if the New Company had not been a trustee of such estate or the New Company were not, in respect of the Parent Company, a subsidiary, or, in respect of any other subsidiary of the Parent Company or any company associated with the Parent Company, a related company.

Any payment to which subsection (1) applies shall be clearly identified in the account rendered in respect of the estate or trust property.

Nothing in this Act shall affect the constitution or incorporation of the New Company, but the New Company shall continue under its original incorporation with the powers and privileges by this Act conferred and subject to the additional duties and liabilities by this Act imposed.

Nothing in this Act shall operate to annul or abridge any powers or jurisdiction now possessed by the High Court in respect of trustees, and all such powers and jurisdiction shall apply to the New Company in respect of all trusts undertaken by it.

Without limiting subsection (1), nothing in this Act shall annul or abridge the power of the High Court to remove the New Company from any office notwithstanding that it has come to that office by virtue of any provisions of this Act.

The enactments specified in the Schedule are hereby repealed.

This Act is hereby declared to be a private Act.