11. Maintenance and advancement and protective trusts

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter discusses the following: express powers of maintenance; exclusion of maintenance; the statutory power of maintenance; power to maintain infant beneficiaries, duty to maintain an adult beneficiary; accumulations; trust income; contingent pecuniary legacies; the power of the courts to award maintenance; the meaning of advancement; the statutory power of advancement; express powers of advancement; trustees discretion in granting maintenance and advancement; the courts’ power to authorize advancements; the exercise of discretion; and protective trusts and determining events.

1. The birth of equity and trusts

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter discusses the origin of equity and trusts as distinctive aspects of the English legal system and the subsequent merger of equity with the common. It covers the meaning and origin of equity; what became of the chancery jurisdiction after the Earl of Oxford but before the Judicature Act; the reform of the Court of Equity; the Supreme Court of Judicature Acts 1873–5; the modern relevance of equity; the types and nature of trusts; and the recognition of trusts.

15. Constructive trusts and fiduciary duty

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. The chapter looks at the nature of fiduciary duty and how someone becomes a fiduciary. The liability of fiduciaries for breach of trust is considered. Bribery and secret profits are explained, the meaning, nature, and approaches to constructive trusts are studied, and the various circumstances in which constructive trust might emerge are discussed. These include remedial and institutional constructive trusts. The liability of third parties (strangers) in constructive trusts as trustees de son tort, dishonest assisters, and those in knowing receipt are considered. The meanings of ‘knowledge’ and ‘dishonesty’ in this area of the law are explained, as is the level of liability of constructive trustees.

14. Breach of trust

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter on breach of trust discusses the following: the trustees’ duty of care; the fiduciary nature of trusteeship; the nature of equitable compensation; reasonable care and skill the liability of individual trustees; the criminal liability of trustees; the protection of trustees; trustee exemption clauses; section 61 Trustee Act 1925 and the court’s power to excuse the liability of trustees for breach of trust; when the statutory period of limitation applies; and the equitable doctrine of laches.

12. The appointment of trustees

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter discusses the following: the different types of trustee; the number of trustees required; the general duties of trustees; trustee decision making; disclaiming trusteeship; who is eligible to be a trustee; who has power to appoint trustees, express and statutory powers; the appointment of trustees by the beneficiaries; the appointment of trustees by the court; the vesting of the legal estate in the trustees; the retirement of trustees; and the removal of trustees; protection of beneficiaries.

9. Charitable trusts

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter on charitable trusts discusses the following: the legal and tax advantages of charitable status; the role of the Charity Commission; the legal definition of charity; the four heads of charity: poverty, education, religion, and other purposes beneficial to the community, such as help for the old and sick, animal welfare and recreation; the additional categories of charity introduced by the Charities Act 2011, the difference between the different public benefit requirements for different types of charity; and the basis of the cy-près doctrine.

8. Unincorporated associations and the beneficiary principle

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. All trusts, except for charities, require beneficiaries to enforce the trust. This can be inconvenient, so there are exceptions. Unincorporated associations are a type of organization that does not exist in the eyes of the law. They have no legal personality, therefore they cannot hold property in their own name. This chapter discusses the possible legal structures for unincorporated associations; the dissolution of unincorporated associations; the beneficiary principle; trusts for monuments or graves; trusts for the maintenance of particular animals; and trusts for the saying of masses.

3. Trusts and powers and the three certainties

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter on trusts and powers discusses the following: the different types of trust and powers; power (mere or bare or personal); fiduciary power; trust power (trust in default of appointment); discretionary trust (sometimes called a trust power or power in the form of a trust); the certainty of intention, certainty of subject matter, and certainty of objects; administrative unworkability; certainty of objects in conditional gifts; and the effects of absence of the three certainties.

2. The different types of trust

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter examines the different types of trust, how they are used, and the nature of a trust. The many uses of trusts in the modern world, from pensions to the ownership of the family home and the preservation of family wealth are explained. The discussions cover the meanings of trust and property; what trusts are used for; what an equitable interest is; classification of trusts; resulting trusts; constructive trusts; implied trusts; Quistclose-type trusts; and wills and intestacies.

18. Equitable remedies

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter on equitable remedies discusses that the courts’ powers to grant equitable remedies are discretionary and that equitable remedies vary from case to case. It also looks at the difference between the principles governing the grant of general and specific injunctions and the principles governing the grant and refusal of specific performance. It also mentions that all equitable remedies are in personam and can be granted in respect of property outside the jurisdiction of the court.