Review of 4^th edn. by Emma Chamberlain, Tax Counsel

DRAFTING TRUST AND WILL TRUSTS: A MODERN APPROACH. BY JAMES KESSLER. FOURTH EDITION (Sweet & Maxwell) 85.00.

When Kessler first published his book on drafting in 1992 the writer remembers picking it up in Blackwells bookshop and flicking through the pages. After five minutes she was hooked and spent Saturday morning (having bought it) reading the book from cover to cover. A fellow colleague was similarly entranced and the book became compulsory reading for all that firm's trainees and others embarking on the dangerous perils of trust drafting.

Kessler's updated book continues to be an invaluable tool in a number of ways: first because it succeeds in making trust law fun; second because it challenges the more experienced reader to look to his or her own standard drafts more critically; and third it takes the novice drafter through the basics (and more) of trust and will drafting, explaining the thinking behind each standard clause and outlining the various types of trust that can be chosen and the drafting considerations behind each.

The book is informative, readable and amusing. David Hayton stated in the foreward to the first edition that the 11 chapters (now in this fourth edition 18) should be compulsory reading for the draftsman. Your reviewer agrees. The emphasis throughout the book is on plain English rather than legalese. The second chapter on style discusses areas such as punctuation, short sentences and archaic forms in what to many readers may appear a bold and irreverent way. Kessler rightly makes no apologies for this. "There is nothing praiseworthy in practising the errors of one's forefathers".

It is, as the author says in the preface, essentially a practical book. If one is looking for an answer to a more esoteric trust problem then (particularly given the index with which your reviewer struggled), this is not the right source. However, it is a book one can read from cover to cover and extract a great deal of benefit at any level. The footnotes often contain much useful technical explanation on areas of trust law generally. (See for example, the detailed discussion of number of trustees in chapter 4 or the conditions as to accumulation and maintenance trusts).

This fourth edition has the precedents themselves on disk which is likely to prove useful for many smaller firms of solicitors who do not have the resources to set up a tailor made bank of precedents from scratch. (There is apparently a website where these precedents can be updated but despite logging on the reviewer has failed to obtain a response.)

The reviewer particularly likes Kessler's version of a wide form accumulation and maintenance settlement - one of the few which is readily comprehensible and sufficiently flexible.

The new fourth edition is up to date to July 1998. It incorporates the decisions of Armitage v Nurse and IRC v Lloyd's Private Banking and a new chapter on international issues has been added. Your reviewer had not seen the book since the first edition and this one obviously also covers the Trust of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (although perhaps not in as much detail as might have been expected). More detail on areas such as state benefits and handicapped beneficiaries in this edition would have been welcome - chapter 3 is a little brief on what must be an important subject for many practitioners. One may not agree with all the author's strongly expressed opinions (see for example his comments on Armitage v Nurse) but one cannot fail to be stimulated by the lucid way in which his views are expressed.

Those who already have an earlier edition may question whether it is worth purchasing the new one since this edition is not in the writer's view fundamentally different from the first. However, at 85 it probably represents one of the best value trust books and one at least which will be used by offices. Although primarily directed at lawyers (presumably solicitors) the book could also usefully be acquired by accountants who wish to know something about trusts. They would learn rather too much for many lawyers' liking if they read this book.

The book only covers settlements and wills. It does not attempt to deal with the subsidiary documents to the original settlement deed such as deeds of appointment and these are often the most tricky. It is hoped that the next edition will touch on the problems that can arise in these areas as well.

EMMA CHAMBERLAIN

Tax Counsel

Here is information on how to buy James Kessler's books.

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