Trusts let one person hold property for the benefit of another, and solicitors create and advise on them constantly — in wills, family arrangements, business structures and more. But a trust only works if it has been properly declared and properly set up. Get either step wrong and the arrangement collapses, the property goes somewhere the client never intended, and the beneficiaries are left with nothing they can enforce.
This lesson takes you through the whole journey of bringing a trust into being — from the settlor's first words to the moment the trust becomes watertight and enforceable.
What this lesson covers:
- Express Trusts and the Three Certainties — what an express trust is, how a settlor creates one, and the certainty of intention that must underpin it.
- Certainty of Subject Matter and Objects — identifying the trust property and the beneficiaries, the different tests that apply, and what happens when certainty is missing.
- Formalities and Testamentary Trusts — the writing and signing requirements for trusts of land, equitable interests, and trusts made by will.
- Constituting the Trust — how and when the trust property must be vested in the trustee.
- Enforcing and Completing Constitution — why equity will not assist a volunteer, and when a beneficiary can finally enforce the trust.