Sec. 181.004. IMPLYING THAT PERSON IS TRUST COMPANY. (a) A person or company may not use in a business name or advertising the words "trust," "trust company," or any similar term or phrase, any word pronounced "trust" or "trust company," any foreign word that means "trust" or "trust company," or any term that tends to imply that the business is holding out to the public that it engages in the business of a fiduciary for hire unless the banking commissioner has approved the use in writing after finding that the use will not be misleading. This subsection does not prohibit an individual from engaging in the business of a fiduciary for compensation or from using the words "trust" or "trustee" for the purpose of identifying assets held or actions taken in an existing capacity.

(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to:

(1) a trust institution authorized under this subtitle to conduct a trust business in this state; or

(2) another entity organized under the laws of this state, another state, the United States, or a foreign sovereign state to the extent that:

(A) the entity is authorized under its charter or the laws of this state or the United States to use a term, word, character, ideogram, phonogram, or phrase prohibited by Subsection (a); and

(B) the entity is authorized by the laws of this state or the United States to conduct the activities in which the entity is engaged in this state.

Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 62, Sec. 7.16(a), eff. Sept. 1, 1999. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, Sec. 6.004(a), eff. Sept. 1, 2001.