Beneficiaries naturally want to know what is happening to property held for them, and trustees regularly field requests to inspect accounts, see documents, or explain their decisions. As a solicitor advising either side, you need to know precisely what beneficiaries are entitled to, what trustees must produce, what they may keep private, and how the court resolves the disputes in between. This area sits at the heart of trustee accountability and comes up constantly in practice.
This lesson works through it in five steps:
- Foundations and the Duty to Keep Accounts — what beneficiaries are entitled to know, who can ask, and the firm duty to keep and segregate proper accounts.
- The Right to Disclosure — why disclosure is a matter for the court's supervisory jurisdiction rather than an absolute proprietary right.
- Trust Documents and Deliberative Documents — the key distinction between documents usually disclosed and decision-making records usually protected.
- The Court's Supervisory Discretion — the factors the court balances, and when even deliberative documents may be opened up.
- Limits and Protections — exclusion clauses, letters of wishes, and resisting unreasonable or repeated requests.
By the end you will be able to handle an information request from first principles and predict how a court would decide it.