Trusts and Divorce

In this episode, Simon takes advantage of Anita’s absence to indulge his favourite topic: trusts and divorce.

Simon is joined by three leading experts in the field:

Emma Hargreaves  is a barrister at Serle Court chambers, specialising in contentious trust litigation.

Abby Buckland is a partner in the family team at Kingsley Napley and was part of the team who were successful in an argument that a trust was a sham in Michael v Michael.

Louise Woolrich is a partner at Carey Olsen in Jersey, specialising in trust litigation.

We start by going back to basics and exploring what is a trust, and by getting to know the cast of characters who appear in any case involving trusts: the settlor, the trustee, the beneficiary and the protector. We answer the question “what is an offshore trust, and should we always be suspicious of them?”.

We then travel through the various stages of a case involving trusts from disclosure to enforcement. We consider trusts as resources and nuptial settlements and discuss whether trustees should be joined to proceedings and, if they are, whether they should submit to the jurisdiction. We discuss how trustees can be involved in without prejudice negotiations and FDRs in order to try and bring about settlement. Finally, we look at how to get orders enforced, in England and offshore.

We look at each aspect from the perspective of the beneficiary spouse, the non-beneficiary spouse and the trustee. Practical tips from our speakers at every stage, whoever you are advising.

Abby refers to a number of key English law cases on nuptial settlements and sham:

Ben Hashem [2008] EWHC 2380Brooks v Brooks [1996]Snook v. London & West Riding Investments Ltd [1967] 2 QB 786Thomas v Thomas [1995] 2 FLR 668Michael v Michael (No 1) [2024] EWFC 463

Louise refers to key offshore decisions:

Disclosure of trust information