Recent decisions of the Victorian Supreme Court have confirmed that the consequences for trustees are potentially disastrous if trust documentation is mislaid and cannot be located.
The trustee of a trust has a duty to keep proper accounts and records of the trust.1 This includes an obligation to keep track of all documents which detail the terms of the trust, including the initial deed as well as subsequent deeds of variation or amendment. Technology has simplified this process to an extent, allowing for electronic copies of documents to be stored and accessed quickly. However, and in particular where the trust was set up decades ago before the advent of “scanning to .pdf”, lawyers, advisers and their clients often find themselves searching for copies of old deeds, without which the terms of the trust may be uncertain.
The Victorian Supreme Court has recently handed down three decisions, each with subtly different fact scenarios, that related to missing trust documents.
The full paper is available to Sladen Smart Members sign up/login here to continue reading.
