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.