ABSTRACT
The trust, as explained previously, originated under English common law with the three components of settlor, trustee and beneficiary. The absence of a beneficiary would therefore cause the trust to fail; in a similar vein, a trust created for a purpose rather than for a beneficiary was not valid unless the purpose was charitable. The trend developed where businesses began to use charities as the ultimate but inconsequential beneficiaries in their financial planning by way of trust structures. The offshore financial centres have taken the concept to its logical and expected extension by authorising a trust for non-charitable purposes.
