Beneficiaries And The Disclosure Of Trust Documents

Trust beneficiaries frequently ask what trust documents trustees are obliged to disclose to them.

In this article, I am only dealing with common trust situations without taking into account any special or compelling reasons why information should or should not be disclosed.

There are some trusts that have information-controlling mechanisms embedded in the trust deed that only permit the trustee to disclose trust information to a protector or to the beneficiaries with the protector's consent; this article does not consider such specialised trusts.

The overriding principle of law governing the disclosure of trust documents is the fundamental requirement that trustees should be accountable to the beneficiaries in order to ensure the proper administration of the trust -- and the beneficiaries must be sufficiently informed in order to do so.