Introduction

1. The past thirty years have seen a huge expansion in personal wealth and attempts to protect that wealth. Trusts have been extensively used and abused. In many instances the demands of the market have overridden fundamental trust concepts. This has resulted in worldwide litigation as settlors die and problems with trust structures emerge.

2. These notes summarise many of the cases and illustrate what has gone wrong. The thrust is negative. Nevertheless the trust remains a flexible and useful way of overcoming many problems that can affect wealthy individuals and their families. The fundamentals should, however, override market demands where the two are incompatible.