Becoming a charity trustee

A question about : Becoming a charity trustee

My OH has been asked by his brother to become a trustee of a small educational charity his brother is setting up with other members of his family - ( brothers wife, sislaw, brolaw etc). OH is reluctant as he knows nothing at all about the sector in which they will be working. His brother's wife, bro-law and sis in law are all foreign nationals (Bulgarian). He thinks they should get someone to be treasurer with knowledge of company accounts. What would be his personal financial liabilities as a trustee?

Best answers:

• The Charity Commission has a good guide to what's involved. Knowing the sector the new charity will be involved in isn't necessary, although an interest in the work would be helpful: you need people with a range of skills, but perhaps particularly where there's lots of family involved, you need to be ready to speak up and disagree where necessary!
  Personal financial liabilities - depends. Many charities are also set up as ltd companies (although there are other, newer, structures available now about which I know less!) which means that liability is limited, AS LONG AS the trustees / directors were not negligent.
  It isn't something to be undertaken lightly.
• I would suggest a good knowledge of company accounting and the charity commissioners website is a good place to start
  Currently I am advising a large not- for- profit/registered Charity who will need to file for Insolvency to prevent any accusations of 'wrongful trading' to rebound upon the Management Committee's Trustees, who could still be made personally liable in the worst cases. In addition some of the Trustees are professionals (solicitors, barristers etc ) who would have to account to their professional regulatory Bodies.