ABSTRACT
When creating an express trust, it is important that the settlor act with sufficient certainty so
is to be held on trust, who the trustees are and what their responsibilities are supposed to be. Consequently, there are three certainties required for the creation of a valid express trust.1 First, the settlor must demonstrate a clear intention to create a trust as opposed to creating something else:2 this is known as ‘certainty of intention’. Second, the trust property must be sufficiently segregated from other property so that the trust fund is certain:3 this known as ‘certainty of subject matter’. Third, the people who are to benefit from the trust must also be identified with sufficient certainty:4 this is known as ‘certainty of objects’. Each of these forms of certainty is considered in turn in this chapter. Unless each of these types of certainty is satisfied, any purported trust will be void.
