Oct
25

Basics of a trust

Simply put, a trust is a method of owning an asset other than either personally or by way of a company. It is an arrangement that is unique to English Common Law or to jurisdictions that have had their legal birth in that law, such as in Australia.There a few things that a trust needs that may or may not exist, but there is one element that it must have and that is the trust deed. This is the document that creates the trust and defines the powers of the trustees, who can be a beneficiary and how they might benefit. As trusts can no longer exist in perpetuity, the deed must also define how long the trust can exist before the final assets must be distributed.This may sound very complex, but it isn’t when it’s broken down into its component parts. The longest journey starts out wit ppi reclaim h the first steps. This series is designed to do exactly that, break down a complex subject into simple parts so that anyone can understand.So, as a start, who are the classes of people involved with a trust and what do they do? The classes of people are:The Settlor (Not a settler who is a person who claims some virgin land.)The TrusteesLife tenantsThe RemaindermenWhat do these people do?The Settlor is the person who gives the original assets to the trust. An idiosyncrasy of trusts is that they can exist but own nothing.The trustees are the people who have the power to manage the assets. Their powers are defined by the trust deed and their responsibilities to the beneficiaries are usually also defined in certain ways by statute. A settlor can be a trustee, but doesn’t have to be.

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