Your Authoritative Source on Singapore Law

Shifting Paradigm of Investment by Charities

Tan Yock Lin 

(2018) 30 SAcLJ 271

Abstract:
This article argues that charitable identity is dependent primarily on executive provenance. That explains the nature of the public interest in charity law and is the reason that there must be a uniform approach to what application of charity assets to charitable purposes or charitable success means regardless of the legal form of the charity. Further, the article argues that for the sake of charitable success, the focus should generally be on exercise of teleological judgment rather than on exercise of care by charity trustees in investment situations. This means that such charity trustees should be judged in accordance with the business judgment rule in a manner similar to business directors, save that the standard of appraisal should be objective and not subjective and unless the governing instrument of the charity prohibits in effect application of the rule.