The past thirty years have seen a huge and international expansion in personal wealth. This has resulted in 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 usually when settlors die and problems with trust structures emerge.
Litigation is often multi-jurisdictional.
An important development has been the growth of new trust case law in small jurisdictions. These notes illustrate many areas of contention and difficulty and summarise some of the more recent case law. The fundamentals should, however, override market demands where the two are incompatible. Any act or neglect on the part of a trustee which is not authorised or excused by the terms of the trust instrument or by law, is called a breach of trust.