And just what is a trust — the vehicle with which Senator Warwick Parer has distanced himself (as Minister for Resources) and the ownership of shares which otherwise would be an obvious conflict of interest.
Trusts have been used in Anglo-Saxon law for centuries for a wide range of purposes, but always to avoid something nasty, like taxes, duties, the folly of youth, nosiness and costly administrative and legal farnarkling.
A trust is a legal arrangement, usually set down in a deed or a will. It comprises property, a trustee, beneficiaries and a duty on the part of the trustee to act for the benefit of the beneficiaries not himself.
The trustee (which may be a person or a company) appears for all intents and purposes to legal own the property. His name is on the share certificates, on the title deeds and on the registration papers.
So the property, for legal purposes, is sitting in the trustee’s name, and only the trustee has the legal power to collect the income or transfer the property. But if the trustee fails to do so for the benefit of the beneficiaries the beneficiaries can get the courts to dissolve the trust and order the trust to account for the property.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_trusts for forum”