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In common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship between three parties whereby property (real or personal, tangible or intangible) is transferred by one party to be held by another party for the benefit of a third party.
 
A trust is created by a settlor (archaically known as the feoffor to uses), who transfers some or all of his property to a trustee (archaically known as the feoffee to uses), who holds that trust property (or trust corpus) for the benefit of the beneficiaries (archaically known as the cestui que use, or cestui que trust).
 
The trustee has legal title to the trust property, but the beneficiaries have equitable title to the trust property (separation of control and ownership).

The trustee owes a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries, who are the "beneficial" owners of the trust property. (Note: A trustee may be either a natural person, or an entity, and there may be a single trustee or multiple co-trustees. There may be a single beneficiary or multiple beneficiaries. The settlor may himself be a beneficiary.).

The trust is governed by the terms under which it was created.

The terms of the trust are most usually written down in a trust instrument.

The terms of the trust must specify what property is to be transferred into the trust, and who the beneficiaries will be of that trust.

The trust is also governed by local law

. The trustee is obliged to administer the trust in accordance with both the terms of the trust and the governing law.

In the United States, the settlor is also called the trustor, grantor, donor or creator. In some other jurisdictions, the settlor may also be known as the founder.

Trust law From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses of the word "trust" see Trust (disambiguation) Wills, trusts
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