Charles E. Rounds, Jr. (Suffolk University Law School): The trust being a creature of equity, the Uniform Trust Code rightly defers in spirit to the maxim “Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form” (January 1, 2023)

Charles E. Rounds, Jr., of Suffolk University Law School, has made available for download his article, “The trust being a creature of equity, the Uniform Trust Code rightly defers in spirit to the maxim “Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form”,” published in JDSUPRA. The article begins as follows:

The UTC does not presume to define a trust, the trust being a creature of the judiciary (equity), not the legislature (statute). Thus, the UTC is merely an aggregation of tweaks to the corner of equity doctrine that governs the trust relationship. The maxim “Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form” is woven throughout the fabric of trust jurisprudence, which is first and foremost principles based. Settlor intent is the “lodestar” the must guide a court when sorting out the duties and rights of the parties to a trust relationship. In fact, it must guide the court in determining whether the relationship itself is one of trust, not one of, say, contract or agency. Perhaps there is no “relationship.” The transferee may have taken the property free of trust, either as donee of an inter vivos gift or as a devisee. It is all about what the transferor had intended. Thus, even oral trusts of personal property are enforced. The UTC in no way tampers with the maxim. The maxim governed before the UTC’s enactment. It has governed since its enactment.

Click here to see the full article, “The trust being a creature of equity, the Uniform Trust Code rightly defers in spirit to the maxim “Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form”” 

Posted by Melissa Zheng, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.