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Trusts and marriage break ups are a tricky thing to manage – like trying to mix oil and water more often than not. Some trustees can put personal differences aside and get on with it, most, it appears, can’t. Often the pragmatic (and ultimately cost effective as it breaks deadlocks) solution is the removal of … Continue reading
I often describe trusts to new clients by reference to puppies. A lovely idea – and a very important life time companion. However, trusts like puppies need a lot of support, maintenance and there needs to be someone to clean up. I was pleased then to see Lindsay Pope today analogising accepting an appointment as a trustee … Continue reading
Inland Revenue has issued a QWBA (QB 15/11) regarding whether a trustee exercising a discretion to distribute trustee income (that would be taxed at the trustee rate of 33% if retained by the trustee) to a beneficiary on a lower tax rate, a beneficiary with tax losses or a beneficiary to whom the income will … Continue reading
Some cases seem to have eternal existence. The original matter of Spence v Lynch is one of these. The are now at least 9 recorded decisions by my count named either White v Spence or Spence v Lynch. The first case was written up in this blog as Dominant trustee architect of loss. The name was apt then, … Continue reading
SWL Trustee Company Limited (SWL) is a trustee that acts together with two other trustees as trustees of a family trust. As is commonly the case, two of the trustees (the instructing trustees) are also settlors of the trust. The trust owns a number of properties. All is fine, until it is not. The trust owns a number of properties. … Continue reading
Dealing with trust owned assets following the demise of the settlors’ relationship can be tricky. Many of the traps and pitfalls that can befall trustees who have diffficulties differentiating between the rights as beneficiaries and the obligations they owe as trustees are highlighted in the cases that comprise the back story to Irvine and Taylor … Continue reading
References to executors and trustees are routinely combined and treated as synonymous with each other. But are they? Actually they are not. While the distinction is often unimportant, in certain circumstances it is critical. The executor’s duties include obtaining a grant of probate, getting in all of the assets, paying outstanding (and future) debts including … Continue reading
The long awaited Court of Appeal decision on the subject of illusory trusts should make unsettling reading for many a settlor, and perhaps their advisers too. The decision, which runs to 96 pages is substantial. The message is mixed. While the trust in question was found to be valid (illusion it turns out, is just … Continue reading
I talk a lot about all the things that go horridly wrong for trustees and all the mistakes they make and how they can do better, try harder. But the difficulty for many trustees is that even if they know they are not doing a great job, they don’t actually know how to pick up … Continue reading
Buying the family farm can seem a rite of passage. However, given the value of most farms inter-generational assistance can be required so that this can happen. Commonly, this assistance can take the form of an on-demand loan. While not stated, the practical reality is that if the children stay in Mum and Dad’s favour, no demand … Continue reading
Matters of Trust 