Bermuda's Approach To Defective Trustee Appointments

The C Trust (the Trust) was established in 1965 for the benefit of the Family. The Trust's terms provided that the protector held the power to appoint trustees. Certain beneficiaries (the Family), erroneously believing they had power to appoint trustees in place of the two protectors identified in the trust deed, invalidly sought to exercise the power. This led to a chain of invalid appointments over 20 years and had potentially significant consequences for the Trust's administration.

The C Trust's¹ assets included controlling interests in holding companies that owned trading entities in Africa, employing a substantial workforce. Reconstituting trust records would have had an enormous drain on trust resources.