How a trust helps in wealth and legacy planning

CLIENTS often come to us for legacy and estate planning as part of their comprehensive wealth plan. Sometimes, they come after speaking with other professional advisers and have been introduced to the use of trust.

I thought it would be interesting to first understand what a trust is through knowledge of the evolution of the law of equity. This law has its origins in 14th century England.

While England’s common law is consistent, it can be too rigid because judgements are made based on precedence. Since the king was considered the source of justice, a person could submit a petition to the king and have his case heard if he felt he was unfairly judged. The king then had an unfettered, unrestricted discretionary judicial power to resolve disputes, without being bound by the doctrine of precedent to follow decisions in the previous cases.