A trustee who pays trust money into their own bank account does not put it beyond the beneficiary's reach — but recovering it depends on a set of rules and presumptions that must be applied in order. This chapter begins with the basics of tracing and the advantages of the equitable route, then sets out the elements of an equitable proprietary claim, including the need for a pre-existing equitable interest. It works through tracing into a mixed account — the presumptions governing wrongful and innocent mixtures — and the limits on tracing where money is dissipated, paid into an overdrawn account or used to discharge unsecured debt, including the lowest intermediate balance rule. It then covers claims to purchased assets and the choice between a proportionate share and an equitable lien, the attribution methods for innocent mixtures such as first in, first out, and finally the bona fide purchaser defence and what is left to the beneficiary when a proprietary claim fails.
