General powers and duties

(1) Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the rules, the Public Trustee may, if he thinks fit, (a) act as executor or administrator in the administration of the estates of deceased (b) act as custodian trustee; (c) act as ordinary trustee; (d) be appointed a judicial trustee; 7 (e) act as guardian or committee, or receiver, of the property of any infant or other person under disability, as the case may be; (f) take possession of and administer the estate of any person who is absent from Belize and who is not fully represented by any attorney in Belize, and who has left debts unpaid. (2) Subject to this Act and to the rules, the Public Trustee may act either alone or jointly with any person or body of persons in any capacity to which he may be appointed in pursuance of this Act, and shall have all the same powers, duties and liabilities, and be entitled to the same rights and immunities and subject to the control and orders of the court, as a private person acting in the same capacity. (3) The Public Trustee may decline, either absolutely or except on the prescribed conditions, to accept any trust, but he shall not decline to accept a trust on the ground only of the small value of the trust property. (4) The Public Trustee shall not accept any trust which involves the management or carrying on of any business, except when acting under section 14 of this Act, or except in the cases in which he may be authorised to do so by the rules, or any trust under a deed of arrangement for the benefit of