Toronto General Trusts
Toronto General Trusts Corporation
The Toronto General Trusts Corporation was Canada’s first trust company, founded as the Toronto General Trusts Company. It received its charter in 1872 but didn’t begin operating until 1882. The idea came from Sir William Mortimer Clark, a lawyer who wanted to create a Canadian trust company. After an early failed attempt, the charter was renewed in 1881 for Toronto General Trusts, and the company began operating the next year, with Edward Blake serving as its first president.
In its early years the company grew slowly, but by 1892 its assets topped a million dollars. In 1899 the Toronto General Trusts Company merged with the Trusts Corporation of Ontario and changed its name to the Toronto General Trusts Corporation.
Growth continued in the early 20th century. The company bought the Winnipeg General Trusts Company in 1901 to expand west, and in 1903 it acquired the Ottawa Trust and Deposit Company. A new seven-story head office on Bay Street at Melinda Street was completed in 1912. The company opened branches across Canada, including Vancouver in 1915, and later expanded to Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, and Winnipeg. The Toronto head office was expanded in the late 1920s, and a savings department was added in 1929.
During the Great Depression the company faced mortgage arrears but recovered in the mid-to-late 1930s. Leadership shifted several times, with Thomas Bradshaw becoming president in 1935, followed by Albert Edmund Phipps after Bradshaw’s death in 1939. The company continued to grow through the 1940s and into the 1950s, supported by connections to major banks. By 1960, several of its directors came from the Toronto-Dominion Bank, reflecting the era of interlocking banking interests.
In 1961 the Toronto-Dominion Bank offered to buy the company. The deal was accepted, and Toronto General Trusts merged with the Canada Permanent Trust Company to form the Canada Permanent Toronto General Trust Company, effective December 1, 1961. Two years later the merged company dropped “Toronto General” from its name, becoming the Canada Permanent Trust Company.
Over the following decades, the company’s fate continued to intertwine with Canada’s big banks. Canada Permanent merged into Canada Trust in 1985, and after a series of ownership changes culminating in 2000, the assets eventually became part of TD Canada Trust.
Beyond its headquarters on Bay Street, Toronto General Trusts built three other offices across Canada, though only the Montreal building remains today.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:34 (CET).