A declared trust that fails any one of these requirements may leave the property exactly where it started, or send it back on resulting trust. This chapter begins with the nature of an express trust and certainty of intention, including the problem of precatory words, before working through certainty of subject matter — where tangible and intangible property are treated differently — and the tests for certainty of objects under fixed and discretionary trusts. It then sets out the formalities for lifetime trusts of land, dispositions of equitable interests and testamentary trusts, and explains how a trust is constituted by self-declaration or transfer to trustees. Finally, it examines whether an incompletely constituted trust can be saved, and the position of the volunteer beneficiary once constitution is complete.
