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Being a trustee is hard. Hallmark persistently fails to produce a Love your trustee card. There is no national, or international trustee day. It can be hard slog. And yet, when the beneficiaries say we don’t want you, we want someone else, trustees turn up all guns blazing overflowing with umbradge. The difficulty is knowing … Continue reading
O’Dea v Rutten serves as reminder of the importance of respecting the legal framework of estates and trusts. For reasons that make no legal sense notwithstanding wills that provided for the residue of two estates to be distributed to trusts, the executors took the position that the trusts should be wound up and the trust … Continue reading
By way of background in Vincent Family Corporate Trust Limited (as trustee of the ET and P Vincent Trusts) as noted by Van Bohemen J (above and below): In Vincent Family Corporate Trustee the parties were urged to find resolution. When this was not possible the court was required to determine matters. Helpfully, Van Bohemen … Continue reading
Being a trustee is increasingly more skittles than beer. “Beddoe orders” are an avenue for trustees to pursue or defend proceedings without facing personal liability. McCallum v McCallum concerns an appeal against partial Beddoe orders. At the opening of his novel Anna Karenina, the Russian novelist Tolstoy writes “All Happy families resemble one another, but … Continue reading
Transferring assets that might otherwise comprise relationship property to a trust, might appear an attractive alternative to “I love you” but not enough to share my stuff with you. However, even if the relationship is not yet a qualifying relationship for the purposes of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 (the Act); dispositions to trust can … Continue reading
Legler v Formannoij relates to a spirited challenge to the appointment of a corporate trustee to act as the sole trustee of a trust. The arguments put to the court included the contention that this was a fraud on a power as the director and one of the two shareholders was formerly a trustee and … Continue reading
The background to the appeal in Lambie v Addleman is encapsulated in [8] and [9] of the decision where the Supreme Court states as follows: The factual background is set out in Whose advice is it?; Rights to information prevail; and Disclosure request declined – 24 years a leap too far for a beneficiary who … Continue reading
It is not uncommon for trustees to seek a release from beneficiaries prior to the final distribution of trust assets. However, where beneficiaries are reluctant or unwilling a trustee may quite properly be concerned to protect the trustee’s position in the event of a subsequent claim. The avenues to address such a consideration were canvased … Continue reading
Trustees looking for certainty regarding costs will commonly turn their minds to a Beddoe application. However, where costs are a live issue and the grounds for a Beddoe order may not be made out, an alternative course of action is to seek a prospective costs order. While this may appear largely the sole dominion of … Continue reading
The purpose of a Beddoe application as set noted in Representation of X Trustees re D and E Trusts is to “.. provide certainty and protection to a trustee by predetermining the question of whether costs incurred in third party litigation were reasonable and should be borne out of the trust fund.” In considering whether … Continue reading
Matters of Trust 