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Trust Creation:

In the usual situation, the person who creates a trust (variously called the "donor," "grantor" or "settlor") conveys legal title "in trust" to a body of his or her real or personal property or money (the "corpus") to a third party, (the "trustee"), perhaps a close friend, professional financial manager or a bank trust department, to be managed or invested by that trustee for the benefit of a named person or persons, the "beneficiary." Thus the burdens of property ownership and management fall to the trustee, while the benefits go to others, the beneficiaries.

The act of trust creation immediately transfers the legal title and absolute ownership of the trust property or "corpus" from the grantor to the trust. Assuming there is no fraudulent intent, this means the grantor's creditors cannot reach the transferred assets. Control of these trust assets henceforth is vested in the trustee, so long as the trust exists. The trustee's powers and duties can be broad or narrow, according to the terms of the trust declaration, the basic "master plan" authorizing and creating the trust, but they should carefully reflect the grantor's intentions as to how the objectives of the trust are to be achieved and how it is to operate.

The grantor may also be the trustee, or one of the trustees, but such an arrangement imposes a strict duty against self-dealing and conflict of interest, lest the validity of the trust itself be called into question by creditors, tax authorities or the courts. In almost every instance it is better to avoid potential legal challenges by not having the trust grantor act as trustee. This appropriate distance between grantor and trust is not absolute, since the grantor can retain the right to designate or change the trustee at will. The grantor may also be a beneficiary of the trust. Trust beneficiaries receives only an equitable title to the income or assets of the trust, but this allows them to seek judicial intervention as a matter of right if there is reason to believe the trust is being administered improperly or the assets dissipated.