Everyone with a trust will need to purchase this book.

Trusts have become increasingly popular over recent generations as a result of the expansion in personal wealth which has occurred during that period. If a trust is established and administered genuinely, as part of a comprehensive asset protection plan, it will assist you to achieve your objectives and prosper.

Many trustees are unknowingly sitting on a time bomb as a result of the failure of advisors forming trusts to provide practical guidance on trust law, the running of trusts, or the duties of trustees. This has resulted in many trusts being either shams i.e. invalid, or a series of sham transactions. The sad fact is that in many such cases the advisors and trustees do not realise that they are shams.

The myth that independent trustees must be appointed, is continuing to be expounded by advisors, resulting in further sham trusts or transactions. The same principles used to set aside trusts as shams are used to set aside companies as shams. Yet the advisors who maintain that independent trustees are necessary for credibility in the case of trusts, do not express the view that independent company directors are necessary for credibility in the case of private companies. The cases establish that far more trusts with independent trustees have been set aside as shams than trusts without independent trustees. This has occurred in many cases because of the failure, in practice, of many independent trustees to genuinely take part in decisions involving the trust, and a failure on the part of trustees to understand what a trust is, and how to exercise the duties of trustees. This in turn has often been caused by the absence of practical guidance from the advisors setting up the trusts.

Many trusts are not set up as part of an asset protection plan with a strategy and a method of achieving that strategy. Just as business plans and investments plans without a strategy will fail to achieve the desired objective, so do trusts formed without an asset protection planning strategy.