ABSTRACT
Trustees are required to give accounts and to provide details as to the decisions which have been made in accordance with the management of the trust: Re Londonderry. The beneficiaries, or the class of objects of a power, are entitled to be informed of a decision, but are not entitled to be given the reasons as to why that decision was taken, as considered above. In similar vein, the beneficiaries are entitled to accounts which disclose the investment policy of the trust and to minutes of meetings not related to confidential matters. As Lord Wrenbury held in O’Rourke v Darbishire (1920):
The question is then as to the nature of documents which can properly be described as ‘trust documents’. The contents of that category have been found to be incapable of precise definition (Re Londonderry (1965)). This obligation to provide information (albeit of limited types) is an important part of the control of the conscience of the trustee by the court and by the beneficiaries. Without such information it would be impossible in many circumstances to commence the type of litigation dealt with in Chapter 10.
