Something less than infinity** - what evidence is needed to 'recreate' a trust deed

Recent posts have considered leading cases in relation to lost trust deeds.

These cases highlight the critical role ancillary documentation plays in supporting the existence of the trust.

While ancillary materials will not necessarily prove the existence of a trust, their absence when producing a purported trust deed is likely to be fatal to any court application.

In particular, to varying degrees, each of the cases profiled confirm:

1. Supporting documentation, while not of itself enough to establish the existence of a trust, will be critical to the prospects of success in any court application;
2. In many respects, the more relevant ancillary documentation available, the more likely that a court application will be successful;
3. If the supporting documentation indicates at least how the capital and income of the trust are dealt with, the court may advise the trustee to administer the trust according to those documents; and
4. Similarly, the more evidence that a trustee can bring demonstrating that it has discharged all duties in relation to a trust, other than ensuring security of the trust deed, the more likely that the court application will be successful.

As usual, please contact me if you would like access to any of the content mentioned in this post.

** For the trainspotters, the title of today's post is riffed from the Guru Josh song 'Infinity'.

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