Drafting Trusts and Will Trusts

Review by Richard Oerton

Those who own the first edition of this unique and original book will need no persuading to acquire the second.

It is, as the title indicates, a book about drafting, and it ends with a very valuable collection of forms. These fall into three categories: precedents for lifetime settlements (two interest in possession, one discretionary and four accumulation and maintenance); precedents for will trusts (three different kinds); and precedents of administrative provisions (with variants). All of these are characterised by the drafting style which the author has made his own: simple, punctuated and without a word wasted anywhere. The book also reproduces the standard provisions which the author drafted for the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

But many readers will get even more out of the text itself. Drawing on a deep knowledge both of the substantive law and of all aspects of taxation, the author deals comprehensively (and, believe it or not, entertainingly) with the aims and purposes of various kinds of trust, with the provisions which are necessary to each, and with the way in which the necessary provisions should be framed. Ingenious but unassailable tips are offered. Where several options lie open, good reasons are always given for the one chosen. The new edition incorporates, as well as a general expansion and refinement of the text, several new features including a new section on trusts for the disabled and new chapters on the drafting of will trusts and on safety net clauses.

It all adds up to a rigorous re-examination of much that we have taken for granted; and it is just possible to emerge disgruntled from a reading of this book. Practitioners will find themselves looking at their own past deeds and confessing that they have done things which they ought not to have done. But it is a bit like bathing in the sea on a rather cold day: you enjoy it once you get over the shock.

New Law Journal

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