TSEM6241 | Legal background to trusts & estates: failure of trust provisions

The terms of a trust should state what is to happen to the trust assets and their income in all circumstances. If they do not, and circumstances arise in which the trustees haven’t been told what to do with the capital and/or income, it has to be held on trust for the settlor. This type of trust is called a resulting trust. If the settlor is, by that time, dead, or the original trust was set up under a will, the money held on resulting trust will form part of the settlor’s residuary estate.