CHAPTER 660

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered
26-45.1, providing, as to fiduciaries, in acquiring, investing, reinvest-
ing, exchanging, retaining, selling and managing property for the
benefit of another, the care, prudence, discretion and intelligence
which they shall exercise.

[H 648]

Approved March 31, 1956

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a section numbered
26-45.1 as follows:

§ 26-45.1. (a) Except with respect to the securities described in
§§ 6-184 and 26-40, in acquiring, investing, reinvesting, exchanging, re-
taining, selling and managing property for the benefit of another, an
executor, administrator, trustee or other fiduciary, both individual and
corporate, shall exercise the judgment of care under the circumstances
then prevailing, which men of prudence, discretion and intelligence exer-
cise in the management of their own affairs, not in regard to speculation
but in regard to the permanent disposition of their funds, considering the
probable income as well as the probable safety of their capital. Within
the limitations of the foregoing standard, an executor, administrator,
trustee or other fiduciary, both individual and corporate, is authorized to
acquire and retain every kind of property, real, personal or mixed, and
every kind of investment, specifically including but not by way of limita-
tion, debentures and other corporate obligations and stocks, preferred or
common, and securities of any open-end or closed-end management type
investment company or investment trust registered under the Federal
Investment Company Act of 1940, as from time to time amended, which
men of prudence, discretion and intelligence acquire or retain for their
own account; and within the limitations of the foregoing standard, an
executor, administrator, trustee or other fiduciary, both individual and
corporate, may retain property properly acquired, without limitation as
to time and without regard to its suitability for original purchase. .
; (b) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as authoriz-
ing any departure from, or variation of, the express terms or limitations
set forth in any will, agreement, court order or other instrument creating
or defining an executor’s, administrator’s, trustee’s or other fiduciary’s
duties and powers, but the terms “legal investment” or “authorized in-
vestment” or words of similar import, as used in any such instrument,
shall be taken to mean any investment which is permitted by the terms
of paragraph (a) hereof. —
(c) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as restricting
the power of a court of proper jurisdiction to permit an executor, admin-
istrator, trustee or other fiduciary, both individual and corporate, to
deviate from the terms of any will, agreement, or other instrument relating
to the acquisition, investment, reinvestment, exchange, retention, sale or
management of fiduciary property.
. (d) The provisions of this section shall govern executors, admin-
istrators, trustees or other fiduciaries, both individual and corporate, act-
ing under wills, agreements, court orders and other instruments now
existing or hereafter made.