2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVEN - Banking (§§ 1 — 3116) › PART II - Trust Companies (§§ 301 — 503) › Chapter 35 - Powers and Limitations (§§ 361 — 374) › § 370 - Representative capacity

A trust company shall have the power to act as fully as a natural person is now authorized to act by existing laws as executor under a will, administrator, temporary administrator, tutor, guardian, guardian ad litem, committee of the person of a lunatic and trustee or receiver in insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings. The following provisions shall govern the appointment of and exercise of powers by a trust company in the capacity of executor and in other fiduciary capacity:
(a) When a trust company is appointed executor in any last will and testament, the court or officer authorized to grant letters testamentary in Puerto Rico shall, upon the proper application, grant letters testamentary thereon to such trust company or to its successors by merger.
(b) Any trust company may be appointed guardian, trustee or administrator, with or without the will annexed, on the application or consent of any person acting as such or entitled to such appointment and in the place and stead of such person, or such trust company may be joined with any person so acting or entitled to such appointment; but such appointments shall be made upon such notice as is required by law to the persons interested in the estate or fund as the court or other authorized officer making the appointment shall deem proper. No appointment so made shall be deemed to increase the number of persons entitled to full compensation beyond the number so entitled under the terms of the will or deed creating the trust or appointing a guardian or authorized by law. Whenever a person is joined with such trust company in any appointment as guardian, trustee or administrator with or without the will annexed, his appointment may be under such limitation of powers and upon such terms and conditions as to deposit of assets by such person, with such trust company, or otherwise, and upon such reduced bond or security to be given by such person, as the court or other authorized officer making the appointment, shall prescribe.
(c) When application is made to any court or other officer having authority to grant letters of administration with the will annexed upon the estate of any deceased person, and there is no person entitled to such letters who is qualified, competent, willing and able to accept such administration such court or officer may, at the request of any party interested in the estate, grant such letters of administration with the will annexed, to any trust company organized under the laws of Puerto Rico.
(d) Any court or officer having authority to grant letters of guardianship of any infant may, upon the same application as is required by law for the appointment of a guardian for such infant, appoint any such trust company as the guardian of the estate of such infant.
(e) Any court having jurisdiction to appoint a trustee, guardian, receiver or committee of the estate of a lunatic, idiot or habitual drunkard, or to make any fiduciary appointment, may appoint any such trust company to be such trustee, guardian, receiver or committee or to act in any other fiduciary capacity.
(f) Any court having jurisdiction to appoint a committee or trustee or a receiver in insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings or any other proceeding, or action, under the laws of Puerto Rico or of the United States, may appoint any such trust company to be such receiver, trustee or committee.
(g) All money brought into court by order or judgment of any court of Puerto Rico or of any other territory or state, or of the United States, may be deposited with any such trust company provided it has been designated a depositary by the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico for such purpose. Whenever any such trust company shall be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico as a depositary for funds, and moneys paid into court, such trust company shall give to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico a bond in the form and manner prescribed herein.
(h) No bond or other security, except as hereinafter provided, shall be required from any such trust company for or in respect to any trust, nor when appointed guardian, executor, administrator, trustee, receiver, committee or depositary or in any other fiduciary capacity. The court, or officer making such appointment may, upon proper application, require any trust company which shall have been so appointed, to give such security as to the court or officer shall seem proper, or upon failure of such trust company to give security, as required, may remove such trust company from and revoke such appointment.
(i) Where money is received and invested by any such trust company as trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, receiver, committee or depositary, the trust company shall be liable for any losses resulting from such investment in case the investment is such as would be unlawful to be made by an individual acting as trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, receiver, committee or depositary, or such as is not permitted in and by the instrument or words granting or defining the trust.
(j) Such court or officer may make orders respecting such trusts or require any trust company to render all accounts, which such court or officer might lawfully require if such executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, receiver, committee, depositary or such trust company acting in any other fiduciary capacity were a natural person.
(k) Upon the appointment of such trust company as such executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, receiver or committee, no official appointments shall be required.
(l) On all sums of moneys not less than one hundred dollars ($100) which shall be collected or received by a trust company acting as executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, receiver or committee under the appointment of any court or officer, or in any fiduciary capacity under such appointment or as a depositary of moneys paid into a court, interest shall be allowed by such trust company at not less than a rate of two per centum (2%) per annum until the moneys so received shall be duly expended or distributed. If such interest moneys, or any part thereof, shall not annually be expended or distributed pursuant to the terms or provisions of the trust under which such moneys are held, the amount thereof not so expended or distributed shall be accumulated by such trust company for the benefit of the parties interested in such trust fund, and shall be added to the principal to constitute a new principal on which interest shall thereafter be computed.
History —Apr. 23, 1928, No. 40, p. 234, § 18, eff. 90 days after Apr. 23, 1928.