On 17 July 2016 the Sunday Star Times reported about a family at war over a mansion with an opening quote that read “Lawyers say the judiciary are increasingly overturning wills in family disputes.” The dispute ended up in the High Court, firstly regarding an application for the removal of the trustees and secondly a … Continue reading
The facts of FAI Money Limited v Crawley, which traverses, amongst other things, whether a trustee can be liable for a debt incurred under a power of attorney, are set out in the High Court decision discussed in 1 of 2 Trustees Personally Liable. By way of brief recap: Edward Johnston’s brother Richard Johnston who is an accountant, … Continue reading
While foreign trusts are getting some headlines, it is useful to bring attention to a small amendment to the complying trust election regime where a trust can elect to be a complying trust. The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2015–16, Research and Development, and Remedial Matters) Act 2016 has amended ss HC 10 and HC 33 … Continue reading
The long-awaited decision (issued in fact as two separate decisions) in Clayton v Clayton were released today (23 March 2016). The first decision relates to the Vaughan Road Property Trust (VRPT) and the second to the Claymark Trust. Background Mr and Mrs Clayton commenced a de facto relationship in 1986 and married in 1989. They … Continue reading
In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I when Prince Hal finds the cowardly Falstaff pretending to be dead on the battlefield, the prince assumes he has been killed. After the prince leaves the stage, Falstaff rationalizes “The better part of Valour, is Discretion; in the which better part, I haue saued my life” (spelling and punctuation … Continue reading
When who stopped loving who first is lost to the antiquities of time, for modern lovers there is still the trust to keep them shackled together. And what a shackle, and what expense… Whittle v Whittle is another tale of love lost but the Trust, if not the trust, remaining. In this case the pesky … Continue reading
A bare trust is a trust where the trustee’s only duties are to hold the trust property, take reasonable care of it; and transfer the property to or as directed by the trust’s beneficiary. The duties of a bare trustee are passive (unlike the “normal” position where trustees have positive duties to manage and exercise their … Continue reading
Professor Frances Moran has been attributed with lecturing her mainly male equity students at King’s Inns that “There are three roads to ruin in life, wine, women and becoming a trustee. The first two are at least enjoyable.” Not wishing to enter into a debate of the relative strengths of either sex to mislead and … Continue reading