Winding up charitable interest in possession trust

Trusts Discussion
1

I am administering an interest in possession trust set up by will in 1986. It is not a very big trust and in recent years the capital available for investment has depleted to such an extent that the Trustees would like to wind up the trust and distribute the capital among the four charitable beneficiaries. There are no reversionary beneficiaries and Williams suggests that payments can be made indefinitely to charitable beneficiaries. The Trustees are not provided with a power to appoint in the original will. I anticipate that the beneficiaries can be persuaded to “direct” the trustees to distribute the funds but I am not sure that is sufficient. What do the team think?

Ian Reed
Berry & Lamberts

2

I have come across similar situations in the past, and my recollection is that it is usually solved by an application to the Charity Commission for a scheme permitting the distribution of capital to the charitable institutions.

Paul Saunders