Guardian Trust Has Successful Year

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7298, 27 October 1933, Page 5

Guardian Trust Has Successful Year

TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING YESTERDAY. A year of steady but pronounced progress was reviewed when the directors of the Guardian Trust held their twenty-sixth annual meeting in Auckland yesterday. In the course of hiis remarks, the chairman, Mr V. J. Earner, said: “It is particularly gratifying to note the steady increase in tho business of The Guardian Trust. New business for the year reached tho high total oi £1,875,126, more than twice the amount of the previous year. Assets now under administration and control of the company amount to £11,635,725. Tho year has ben a particularly difficult one for the realisation of properties, but in spite of this assets realised or transferred to beneficiaries amounted to £669,255, leaving a net increase of £1,205,541 in the assets under administration.

“The experience of trust companies not only in New Zealand but also in Australia shows that the difficulties and complexities of trusteeships are steadily increasing. Not only is this due to the economic position, but has been greatly accentuated by the passing of legislative enactments affecting trustee securities. This is particularly so as regards mortgage investments, and the position has now been reached where investors with ample funds hesitate to lend on mortgage securities of any kind. Mortgages have always been essentially a trustee form of investment, and in the Legislature's endeavour to protect the interests of mortgagors there is no question but that considerable hardship has been created for widows and orphans who aro dependent on the income received from such securities. The uncertainty that has been created by perhaps well-inten-tioned legislation has also re-acted disastrously for tho borrower. “The Guardian Company with its large resources, has dono much to alleviate the hardships which have occurred, ‘ ‘ Our experience is at ouo with that of other trust companies, inasmuch that during times such as these the greater our increase in business the less profitable it is for the time being. This is due to the fact that in order to avoid sacrifice, realisations on which we draw commission have to be kept at a minimum, and far more supervision and work is entailed in the collection of rents and interest than when times iare good and such payments are made as a matter of course.

“The remarkable increase in the number, of cases in which we have been advised by clients that they have appointed ‘The Guardian’ trustee and executor under their wills has been a further satisfactory feature of the past year’s operations. No less striking has been tho number of instances in which private trustees have taken advantage of the opportunity of relieving themselves of their anxieties and iesponsi-

bilities by appointing ‘The Guardian’ in their place. “The operations of The . Guardian Company have had such beneficont results to the public, ana its careful and economical administration have been such that it has grown into a great Dominion institution whose activities extend throughout the country. It is fulfilling such a useful purpose that I have no hesitation in bespeaking the whole-hearted support of the public and tho legal profession (for whose loyal co-operation I extend my best thanks).’*