Trusts are designed to outlive the people who run them. When a trustee dies, the beneficiaries' interests don't disappear and the trust doesn't fail — but a solicitor has to make sure new trustees are appointed and the trust property ends up legally in their hands. Getting this machinery right is a routine but essential part of trust administration: title has to be clean, the right people must act, and the formalities must be observed.
This lesson takes you through that machinery step by step.
- Core Principle and Framework — why a trust survives a trustee's death, and how the key statutory provisions fit together.
- Appointing a Replacement Trustee (s 36) — when the power arises, who may exercise it, and the form it must take.
- Number of Trustees Where Trust Holds Land — the cap on trustee numbers and what overreaching requires.
- Vesting of Trust Property (s 40) — how property moves to new trustees automatically, and the exceptions.
- What Happens to the Property on Death — survivorship between co-trustees, and where property goes when a sole trustee dies.
- Court Appointment and Vesting Orders (ss 41 and 44) — the court's backstop powers when the ordinary route breaks down.
- Disclaimer Before Accepting Office — when a named trustee can refuse the role, and what counts as acceptance.