THE JERSEY LAW COMMISSION
REPORT
THE RIGHTS OF BENEFICIARIES TO INFORMATION REGARDING A TRUST
To the President of the Legislation Committee of the States of Jersey
PART 1 The interpretation of Article 25 of the Trusts (Jersey) Law, 1984
1.1 The attention of the Jersey Law Commission was drawn to a possible ambiguity in Article 25 of the Trusts (Jersey) Law, 1984. It is claimed that the language of the Article, which sets out the rights of beneficiaries to information regarding the trust, does not make it clear whether those rights can be excluded or even restricted by express provision in the trust instrument.
1.2 Article 25 provides as follows:
Trustee may refuse to make disclosure.
Subject to the terms of the trust and subject to any order of the court, a trustee shall not be required to disclose to any person, any document which -
(a) discloses his deliberations as to the manner in which he has exercised a power or discretion or performed a duty conferred or imposed upon him; or
(b) discloses the reason for any particular exercise of such power or discretion or performance of duty or the material upon which such reason shall or might have been based; or
(c) relates to the exercise or proposed exercise of such power or discretion or the performance or proposed performance of such duty; or
(d) relates to or forms part of the accounts of the trust,
unless, in a case to which sub-paragraph (d) applies, that person is a beneficiary under the trust not being a charity, or a charity which is referred to by name in the terms of the trust as a beneficiary under the trust or the enforcer in relation to any non-charitable purposes of the trust.
1.3 The alleged ambiguity arises from the question of whether the correct interpretation is that the words, "Subject to the terms of the trust…" at the beginning apply to the whole Article including its closing lines, or only to the body of the Article up to the end of the indented part of sub-paragraph (d). If they applied to the whole Article it would presently be possible for a settlor, in drafting the terms of a trust, to narrow as well as to widen the rights of beneficiaries to compel the disclosure of information. If not, those rights could only be widened.