ABSTRACT

In very general terms, a resulting trust arises when the original arrangement envisaged by the testator or settlor has failed, has not been properly established or has been fully achieved without exhausting the trust’s assets. To this extent, it arises out of a disappointed, failed or satisfied purpose of the testator/settlor. Although this is a simplistic picture – see, for example, resulting trusts in the context of co-owned property – it explains why, under a resulting trust, the property returns or ‘results’ to the person originally entitled to it. To put it another way, resulting trusts

may be seen as the consequence of the application of the old maxim that ‘equity abhors a beneficial vacuum’. How, and in what cases, this is related to the intention of the person originally entitled to the property or to the state of mind (conscience) of the original trustee are difficult and complex issues.