The Minister of Justice, Yvonne Dausab, introduced the Trust Administration Bill 2023 in the National Assembly on Monday, which is intended to repeal the old and outdated Trust Money Protection Act 34 of 1934.

In her motivation, Dausab said that despite the importance of the Trust Money Protection Act’s functions, the legislation only had nine substantive provisions.

‘The Master of the High Court often had to rely on common law for Trust activities to supplement and make sense of the statute,’ she said.

Dausab said the outcome of the mutual evaluation of Namibia’s framework highlighted that, regarding trusts or legal arrangements, authorities should conduct Money Laundering risk assessments of legal persons and trusts.

She said this was not a feature of those who created trusts or those entrusted with the responsibility of managing the trust because the Trust Money Protection Act, did not have the legal text required for such action.

The Minister further explained that Namibia does not have any provision in law that requires trustees of any trust governed under the law to hold basic information on other regulated agents of and service providers to trusts, including investment advisors or managers, accountants, and tax advisors.

‘The new Bill, therefore, requires the trustees and the Master of the High Court to keep this information and avail the same to competent authorities on request,’ she stated.

Dausab said the Trust Administration Bill consequently provides for and addresses aspects of control and administration of trusts that the 1934 Act does not provide for.

The new Bill also addresses aspects of the regulation of trustees and trust practitioners, who in practice are currently not regulated in terms of the 1934 Act.

These people, she added, also charge exorbitant fees and drastically reduce trust assets to the detriment of the trust beneficiaries.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency