Book Review Of 1 Kbw On Trusts In Matrimonial Finance Proceedings By Richard Harrison Qc, Harry Oliver, Laura Moys And Others – Bloomsbury Professional

This book is a welcome bringing together of the relevant law, processes and procedures that family lawyers will need to know when dealing with trust issues.  There is a practical approach to all issues throughout the book.

The authors are all from 1 Kings Bench Walk’s specialist family set.  The book is excellent because it brings together everything you need to know about trusts in matrimonial proceedings in one book and each specific chapter clearly marks out the key points, the relevant case law and practical tips as to how to proceed. The book makes excellent use of graphics to explain scenarios and relevant points.  All too often graphics and flow charts make understanding points more difficult, but here the graphics have been well thought through and make it very easy to follow the logic of the points being made and easy to remember too.

To see how valuable this book is in pulling together all aspects relating to trusts in matrimonial proceedings you just have to consider what all the 11 chapters cover.  There are chapters dealing with service, joinder and disclosure by trustees. Consideration is given to the important question of submission to the jurisdiction by trustees and whether or not submission by the trustees to the jurisdiction enables a spouse to enforce a financial order against the trustees.  There is a very good chapter on pre- and post-nuptial settlements, a vital point being that if a spouse can establish that a trust or other arrangement amounts to a nuptial settle­ment then that enables the court to exercise wide powers to vary the trust for the benefit of spouses. There are chapters that focus on the approach of the courts to determining the reality of ownership that may lay behind a trust structure and what real benefits a trustee might derive.

There is a very good chapter that deals with the general principles applicable to determining financial claims generally. One of the most succinct and logical explanations of how S25 and case law is applied that I have read and a useful resource for all financial claims, not just those featuring trusts.

Further chapters focus on an explanation of fundamental trust principles; whether trusts can be attacked as shams,  and how trusts are treated as resources in respect of s25. Enforcement has its own chapter and that is indeed a complicated issue.

If the book could be improved in any way it could have a glossary of terms section or a further chapter explaining what trusts are.  It may well be that without this basic grounding inexperienced practitioners may find using the book a little daunting.  However, there is an excellent explanation of basic trust principle which does appear at the start of chapter 7.

This book will be a welcome addition to the expert practitioner, used to dealing with Trust issues in financial remedy proceedings where the commentary, selected case references are quite excellent but also the more modestly informed practitioner who will find this resource extremely useful for providing a background understating to enable instructions to be taken before seeking expert advice from counsel.

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