 Commentators have agreed that this is largely a reiteration of the previous common law rule on the duty of care . In Speight v Gaunt , Lord Blackburn said that " as a general rule a trustee sufficiently discharges his duty if he takes in managing trust affairs all those precautions which an ordinary prudent man of business would take in managing similar affairs of his own " , similar to an objective test . It has been pointed out that the new duty of care creates problems , because it sets a fixed , objective point . It is not known where this point is , however - a professional trustee obviously cannot be held to the standards of a lay trustee , but it has been seen as equally unfair that a lay trustee would be held to the standards of a professional one . This duty , unlike the previous common law duty , at no point requires the trustee to act . The duty of care has been seen to be advantageous to charities compared to the old one , because it allows those charities forced to employ lay trustees to use professional agents to exercise some duties . 
