TSEM6235 | Legal background to trusts & estates: what a trust needs

A trust needs a

• settlor

• corpus (trust fund) - the settled property

• beneficiary

• trustee.

It also needs certainties of

• words - a clear indication that a trust is being set up

• subject matter - the property that has been settled

• object - who is the beneficiary.

If the trust does not contain these three certainties, it is invalid. The transferred property is held on a resulting trust for the settlor.