Trusts in Scotland

Trusts in Scotland

We are incrementally developing a new set of content on Scottish private client law for Scottish practitioners. The content will provide an essential resource for Scottish practitioners, as well as practitioners in England and Wales with clients who need advice on cross-border issues.

Although there are similarities, the trust in Scottish law is conceptually different to the trust in English law. In Scotland, the law of trusts is based not on the dualism of legal and equitable ownership nor on obligations enforceable in equity, there being no distinction of law and equity in Scotland, but on the principle of property being vested in trustees as legal owners subject to the burden of their holding and administering it for the trust purposes, for the benefit of persons who have claims on the trust estate.

Furthermore, Scots law has its own trusts

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Private Client weekly highlights—21 November 2024

This week’s edition of Private Client highlights includes: (1) Wigglesworth v Beetson, in which the claimant failed in an action for estoppel and adverse possession; (2) the Hansard Society to host a briefing on parliamentary process for Assisted Dying Bill; (3) Khan v Khan, which considered family property and constructive trusts; (4) analysis of the Autumn Budget announcement to bring unused pension funds and death benefits within the scope of IHT; (5) Palmer v Sans, which found that there was no transaction at an undervalue where property was already held on trust for the transferee; (6) KA v FA (The Secretary of State for the Home Department intervening), where the court recognised an overseas adoption notwithstanding failure of common law test; and (7) Kireeva v Bedzhamov, in which the Supreme Court has confirmed the application of the immovables rule to English property.

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