GDL Law Notes GDL Equity and Trusts Notes
A collection of the best GDL notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through many applications from mostly first class students and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of GDL notes available in the UK this year. You'll notice that we include several different authors' worth of notes. The first is our 2017 author...
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Three specific areas:
Express Private Trusts
Express Charitable Trusts
Implied Trust – arising by operation of law: not expressly created (exempt from formalities)
Resulting
Constructive
Statutory E.g. under Administration of Estates Act 1925
“Bare” trusts:
Where a beneficiary (or beneficiaries) is of full age and capacity (sui juris) – they are absolutely entitled to the trust property
IF their interest is vested, they may call for the trust property to be transferred to them or their nomine
This is the rule Saunders v Vautier
Assimilates equitable and legal ownership
Equity sees the beneficiary as the ‘true owner’
Saunders v Vautier extended in Curtis v Luken to apply to situations where there are multiple beneficiaries, so long as they are all in agreement
Does it apply to discretionary trusts?
Re Smith (1928)if all the discretionary beneficiaries, who btw them are absolutely beneficially entitled to the whole equitable interest, are of full capacity and of one mind – then they can do as they please with the equitable interest – legal titled is transferred to them in agreed proportions
But – in Gartside v IRC and Sainsbury v IRC: potential beneficiaries of a discretionary trust have no proprietary interest in the trust property until selected by the trustees – merely a hope that they shall be chosen
Can only hope that all the beneficiaries will be of age and in agreement so that the property is transferred in agreed proportions
Practical difficulty when there are a large number of beneficiaries
Saunders v Vautier doesn’t apply to powers of appointment
Types of private trusts:
Fixed Trusts
Where the settlor has already determined in the trust deed the beneficial interest which each beneficiary is to take
“to T1 and T2 on trust for A for life remainder to B absolutely”: successive interests
A has life interest (income) – the life tenant
B has ‘interest in remainder’ :but it is still a vested interest – the remainderman
Vested + Contingent:
Vested = unconditional – it exists currently
A above has the present right to present enjoyment
B has the present right to future enjoyment – interest ‘vested in interest’ – unconditional as he will enjoy the property once A dies (which will happen at some point)
If it was ‘to T1 and T2 on trust for A for life, remainder to B if he survives A’ - B’s interest would be contingent – subject to a condition which may or may not be met
Discretionary Trusts:
Trustees have a mandatory obligation to distribute money – but discretion as to how
Can decide who receives what sum – flexibility
Can be exhaustive or non-exhaustive:
Exhaustive - trustees are obliged to pay out all of the income each year within a reasonable time of its arising – discretion as to whom...
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A collection of the best GDL notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through many applications from mostly first class students and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of GDL notes available in the UK this year. You'll notice that we include several different authors' worth of notes. The first is our 2017 author...
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