223.055 Uniform common trust fund act.

(1) Establishment of common trust funds. Any bank or trust company qualified to act as fiduciary in this state may establish common trust funds for the purpose of furnishing investments to itself as fiduciary, or to itself and others, as cofiduciaries; and may, as such fiduciary or cofiduciary, invest funds which it lawfully holds for investment in interests in such common trust funds, if such investment is not prohibited by the instrument, judgment, decree or order creating such fiduciary relationship, and if, in the case of cofiduciaries, the bank or trust company procures the consent of its cofiduciaries to such investment; and the provisions of this section shall apply to trusts now in existence or hereafter created.

(2) Court accountings. Unless ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction the bank or trust company operating such common trust funds is not required to render a court accounting with regard to such funds; but it may, by application to the circuit court of the county in which it has its principal office, secure approval of such an accounting on such conditions as the court may establish. When an accounting of a common trust fund is presented to a court for approval, the court shall assign a time and place for hearing and order notice thereof by:

(a) Publication of a class 3 notice, under ch. 985, in the county in which the bank or trust company or branch thereof operating the common trust fund is located; and

(b) Mailing not less than 14 days prior to the date of the hearing a copy of the notice to all beneficiaries of the trusts participating in the common trust fund whose names are known to the bank or trust company from the records kept by it in the regular course of business in the administration of said trusts, directed to them at the addresses shown by such records; and

(c) Such further notice if any as the court may order.

(3) Investments. The bank or trust company operating such common trust fund may buy, sell, hold, invest and reinvest the funds and assets thereof in its discretion and shall not be limited or restricted by ch. 881 or any amendment thereof, but the bank or trust company shall not invest the funds of any fiduciary account in any common trust fund unless every investment in such fund is one that would then be a permissible investment for such fiduciary account.

(4) Uniformity of interpretation. This section shall be so interpreted and construed as to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law of those states which enact it.

(5) Short title. This section may be cited as the “Uniform Common Trust Fund Act".

History: 1971 c. 41 s. 12; 1979 c. 89.