Consent As Control: The Rise Of The Powerful Protector

Key takeaways

• A landmark ruling on protector powers. The Privy Council has fundamentally reasserted the internal balance of power within modern trusts, holding that protector consent provisions may confer an independent discretion—not merely a supervisory check on trustee decision-making.

• The 'wide versus narrow' debate is settled. The long-running controversy is now decisively resolved at the highest appellate level in Bermuda: a protector is not merely a referee—they can be a power-holder in their own right.

• Drafting precision is paramount. If settlors intend a protector's role to be limited to that of a 'watchdog', the trust instrument must say so in clear and unequivocal terms.