Appleby Guernsey Trustee Knowledge Series: Foundation Paper 1

What is a Trust?

A Trust¹ involves the separation of the legal title, or ownership, of property from the right to benefit from that property. It involves a person (the "settlor") transferring property (the "trust fund") to another (the "trustee") to hold for the benefit of another person or purpose (a "beneficiary"). A typical trust structure may look something like the following:

It is a useful and practical concept that has been around for centuries. Both the Romans and early Islamic societies developed similar structures, but it is England, and its affiliated Crown Dependencies and former commonwealth countries that have been at the forefront of the development of trusts.