JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

UTC Act in focus at annual meeting

by

PETER CHRISTOPHER
410 days ago
20240524
Unit Trust Corporation executive director Nigel Edwards delivers an address at the 42nd annual meeting of the UTC at the Government Campus, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

Unit Trust Corporation executive director Nigel Edwards delivers an address at the 42nd annual meeting of the UTC at the Government Campus, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

VASHTI SINGH

Se­nior Re­porter

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

De­spite promis­ing 2023 and first quar­ter 2024 re­sults, the Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTC) Act be­came a ma­jor talk­ing point as the Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion host­ed its an­nu­al meet­ing at the Gov­ern­ment Cam­pus Au­di­to­ri­um yes­ter­day.

UTC ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor, Nigel Ed­wards, was ques­tioned about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of amend­ing the act by In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Hazel Thomp­son-Ahye, who ex­pressed frus­tra­tion that it pre­vent­ed lawyers from ob­tain­ing key in­for­ma­tion con­cern­ing their clients’ es­tate in civ­il mat­ters.

“I speak on my be­half and on be­half of a num­ber of lawyers who are dis­sat­is­fied with the UTC Act sec­tion 40 (1) and (2), which pre­cludes staff of Unit Trust from re­veal­ing to a lawyer in­for­ma­tion about a unithold­er’s sta­tus. For ex­am­ple, if you are a lawyer, and you’re ap­ply­ing for an es­tate, and you don’t know how many units the de­ceased had, the Unit Trust can­not tell you un­less that in­for­ma­tion has come on­ly to a nom­i­nee. If the nom­i­nee has died, as in a case that I had, or there is no nom­i­nee you can­not get that in­for­ma­tion,” said the In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor, who had pre­vi­ous­ly raised her con­cerns about the UTC Act in the Sen­ate.

She added, in oth­er cas­es the Act al­so pre­vent­ed ac­cess to such in­for­ma­tion even in the case of unithold­ers suf­fer­ing from men­tal health is­sues, which she said was not the case for oth­er fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions in­clud­ing cred­it unions.

In re­sponse to the sen­a­tor’s ques­tions and points, Ed­wards ex­plained the board did not have con­trol over amend­ments to the act, al­though it could make rec­om­men­da­tions or sug­ges­tions for changes to be made.

In an in­ter­view with jour­nal­ists af­ter the an­nu­al meet­ing, Ed­wards con­firmed there were changes to the act that had been sug­gest­ed by the board.

“We con­tin­ue to make rep­re­sen­ta­tions to have some of the as­pects of the UTC Act amend­ed. Of course, as I am sure you un­der­stand, the par­lia­men­tary agen­da is not con­trolled by us and, sec­ond­ly, it is a very tight agen­da. So some of the things that we would like to see changed in the act have to do with how we are reg­u­lat­ed and how we deal with the reg­u­la­tors. We have made rec­om­men­da­tions for a num­ber of those changes. And we an­tic­i­pate in due course, we will re­ceive some move­ment from the Min­istry of Fi­nance that those changes will go to Par­lia­ment,” said Ed­wards.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, Ed­wards con­firmed that the UTC’s quar­ter one re­sults con­tin­ued the trend of im­prove­ment seen in 2023.

“Our unithold­ers ben­e­fit­ted from a to­tal of $322 mil­lion in div­i­dend pay­outs, which was an in­crease of 19 per cent over that paid in 2022. In 2024, we have con­tin­ued the trend for the first quar­ter; our dis­tri­b­u­tion to unithold­ers in­creased by 44 per cent from $59 mil­lion in Q1 2023 to $85 mil­lion in Q1 of 2024,” said Ed­wards.

Chief in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cer, Nicholas Nan­ton, al­so con­firmed that the UTC app, which had been an­nounced last year, was in the be­ta test­ing stage and is ex­pect­ed to be func­tion­al soon. Ed­wards con­ser­v­a­tive­ly said the app should go live in two months.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

Ringmasters of the Road: Crowds flock to Tribe’s circus-themed band launch

10 hours ago
Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Scotiabank Foundation, United Way donate steelpans

10 hours ago
The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

Yesterday
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

Yesterday