Trustee Knowledge Series Advanced Paper Seven: Rights To Information

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." – Samuel Johnson.

Notwithstanding that trustees are under a general duty to keep the affairs of the trust confidential, questions over the scope of that duty and how it may interact with the disclosure of trust information will inevitably arise in the professional life of a trustee. The agreed legal position fundamental to trusts is that one of the irreducible core obligations owed by trustees to beneficiaries is the duty of trustees to account to beneficiaries for the administration of the trust and the right of beneficiaries to trust documents enabling beneficiaries to enforce that duty to account.