A trust enterprise may, by way of trust, manage the real estate of a trustor who is a senior citizen or mentally or physically handicapped and who has set up a money trust with such trust enterprise

Melanie Lo
The Financial Supervisory Commission (hereinafter, the “FSC”) issued the Jin-Guan-Yin-Piao-10400267590 of February 17, 2016 (hereinafter, the “Circular”) to stipulate that a trust enterprise may, by way of trust, manage the real estate of a trustor who is a senior citizen or mentally or physically handicapped and who has set up a money trust with such trust enterprise.

According to the Circular, the FSC has agreed to accept the recommendation of the Trust Association of the Republic of China that a trust enterprise may, by way of trust, manage the real estate of a trustor who is a senior citizen or mentally or physically handicapped and who has set up a money trust with such trust enterprise and may accept the business scope of entrusted real estate management. The scope of management is the same as the management scope under a real estate trust and basically may include relevant matters such as the solicitation of lessees, negotiation of leasing terms and conditions, collection of rents, handling of third-party compensation caused by defective work products, appointment of equipment maintenance, cleaning and sanitation, security and repair operators, and calculation of revenues and expenditures.

The Circular also pointed out that if a trust enterprise intends to handle the above-mentioned business, it is required under Article 17, Subparagraph 12 of the Trust Enterprise Law to apply to the FSC for the approval of ancillary business by stating the details of the managed real estate business to be accepted before commencing with such business. However, if the trust enterprise seeks to further entrust the management of relevant property in such ancillary business to a third party, this is just a trust of general business management, which does not fall within the scope and definition under the FSC’s Rules for the Handling of Internal Operation Systems and Procedures Entrusted to Another Person by Financial Institutions A trust enterprise shall entrust relevant operations to an appropriate property management operator pursuant to the real estate management trust agreement with the trustor and to fulfill the supervisory responsibility over the entrusted operator.