Drafting Trusts and Will Trusts in the Channel Islands, 3rd Edition

Discusses the principles of Jersey and Guernsey trust law, enabling practitioners to interpret and understand existing trust settlements and to draft new ones with confidence.

• Highlights the differences between Jersey and Guernsey trust law
• Enables you to understand the law and to draft safe, accurate trusts, according to the law in either jurisdiction
• Advises on the best trust to use in each situation and provides solutions to drafting problems
• Highlights common mistakes and traps
• Covers both lifetime trusts and will trusts
• Cites Jersey and Guernsey case law, both reported and unreported
• Offers a clear, easy-to-understand style, free of technical jargon
• Contains precedents which are also provided on CD-ROM for quicker drafting
• Written by two highly regarded trust practitioners, so you know you can rely on the advice given

Since the publication of the second edition in 2012 there have been a number of changes to trusts legislation in both Jersey and Guernsey. Key changes relevant to those drafting trust documents for use in both jurisdictions include:

• An amendment to the Trusts (Jersey) Law 1984 in 2018 that clarified the rules that may be contained in a trust instrument concerning the disclosure or information or documents concerning a trust to beneficiaries and other persons; widened the statutory provisions concerning the accumulation of income to capital by providing that where income is not distributed, and no trust to accumulate it or power to accumulate it to capital or retain it as income applies, the income retains its character as income. This part of the amendment also confirmed that there is no time period within which a power to accumulate income must be exercised; clarified the statutory provision concerning the reasonable security to which a trustee is entitled on retirement or distribution of trust assets or the termination of the trust where such reasonable security is provided by an indemnity. It is now clear that the “protection” of such an indemnity may now extend to, among others, officers and employees of a corporate trustee and their heirs and successors, and persons may enforce the indemnity whether or not they were parties to the original document by which the indemnity was created.
• Since the last edition of this book, Guernsey and Jersey have both changed their laws to permit same sex marriages, Guernsey in 2017 and Jersey in 2018.
• Another significant law change in both Islands since the last edition concerns capacity. The Capacity and Self-Determination (Jersey) Law 2016 came into force on 1 October 2018, replacing the previous curatorship regime and established for the first time the right of a Jersey resident to plan for the risk of future mental incapacity by enabling them to granting lasting powers of attorney for health and welfare on the one hand and for property and financial affairs on the other. Guernsey introduced lasting powers of attorney in 2022.
• The third Edition also draws on changes to legislation and case law in other jurisdictions which may be of relevance in Jersey or Guernsey in the future.