ABSTRACT
A secret trust arises when a testator wishes to benefit some person who cannot be named in the will; therefore the testator will ask a trusted confidant to agree to an arrangement whereby the confidant will receive a gift under the will ostensibly for her own benefit but which is in fact to be held on trust by that person for a third person who cannot be named in the will. Equity will enforce this arrangement as a secret trust so that the confidant cannot claim to be beneficially entitled to the property left in the will. The secret trust operates in spite of the provisions of the Wills Act 1837 and therefore illustrates equity’s determination to prevent statute being used as an engine of fraud.1
