COMP 12.6 Quantification: trustees, personal representatives, agents, and joint claims

If a claimant's claim includes a claim as trustee, the FSCS must treat him in respect of that claim as if his claim as trustee were a claim of a different person.

If a claimant has a claim as a bare trustee or nominee company2 for one or more beneficiaries, the FSCS must treat the beneficiary or beneficiaries as having the claim, and not the claimant.2

3If a claimant has a claim as a trustee of a kind falling within COMP 4.2.2 R(4)(a) or (b) for one or more members of a pension scheme (or, where relevant, the widow or widower of any member) whose benefits are money-purchase benefits, the FSCS must treat the member or members (or, where relevant, the widow or widower of any member) as having the claim, and not the claimant.

If any group of persons has a claim as trustees, the FSCS must treat them as a single and continuing person distinct from the persons who may from time to time be the trustees.

Where the same person has a claim as trustee for different trusts, COMP applies as if the claims relating to each of these trusts were claims of different persons.

Where the claimant is a trustee, and some of the beneficiaries of the trust are persons who would not be eligible claimants if they had a claim themselves, the FSCS must adjust the amount of the overall net claim to eliminate the part of the claim which, in the FSCS's view, is a claim for those beneficiaries.

Where COMP 12.6.1 R to COMP 12.6.5 R apply, the FSCS must try to ensure that any compensation paid to the trustee:

1. (1)

   is for the benefit of beneficiaries who would be eligible claimants if they had a claim themselves; and

2. (2)

   does not exceed the amount of the loss suffered by those beneficiaries.

Where a person A is entitled (whether as trustee or otherwise) to a deposit made out of a clients' or other similar account containing money to which one or more persons are entitled, the FSCS must treat each of those other persons, and not A, as entitled to the part of the deposit that corresponds to the proportion of the money in the account to which the other person is entitled.

Where a person numbers among his claims a claim as the personal representative of another, the FSCS must treat him in respect of that claim as if he were standing in the shoes of that other person.

If a claimant has a claim as agent for one or more principals, the FSCS must treat the principal or principals as having the claim, not the claimant.

If two or more persons have a joint beneficial claim, the claim is to be treated as a claim of the partnership if they are carrying on business together in partnership. Otherwise each of those persons is taken to have a claim for his share, and in the absence of satisfactory evidence as to their respective shares, the FSCS must regard each person as entitled to an equal share.

In applying COMP to claims arising out of business done with a branch or establishment of the relevant person outside the United Kingdom, the FSCS must interpret references to persons entitled as personal representatives, trustees, bare trustees or agents, or references to persons having a joint beneficial claim or carrying on business in partnership, as references to persons entitled, under the law of the relevant country or territory, in a capacity appearing to the FSCS to correspond as nearly as may be to that capacity.

1If a firm has a claim under COMP 3.2.4 R, the FSCS must treat each customer of the firm as having the claim for the purposes of calculating compensation within COMP 12.