Text: According to encarta encyclopedia http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?z=1&pg=2&ti=761565541 ): Trust (property law) Trust (property law), in England and the United States, relationship existing between two or more parties in which one party holds the legal title to real or personal property, subject to an obligation imposed by a court of equity, or expressly undertaken to keep or use the property for the benefit of the other party or parties. The party who thus gains control of the property, known as trust property, is called the trustee, and the party for whose benefit the property is held is known as the beneficiary of the trust, or the cestui que trust (Latin, "he for whom the trust"). The party who creates a trust is known as the settlor; the settlor may make herself or himself either trustee or beneficiary. Trusts may be classified, according to the manner in which they are created, as express, resulting, or constructive. An express trust is one that is created by the settlor's conveyance of property by will or deed to a party, with the intention that the property is to be held in trust for others. No consideration is necessary to create a trust, and no writing or other formal document is required, except that trusts of real estate are required by the Statute of Frauds to be in writing. A resulting trust is one that is created, not as a consequence of an actual statement of intention, but when the intention is inferred or presumed, by a court of equity, from the terms of the disposition of the property or from the circumstances accompanying such disposition. Thus, if a purchaser of real estate pays the purchase price but takes title to the property in the name of a third party, a court of equity would hold that a resulting trust is created in favor of the purchaser, who is held by the court to be the real owner of the property. A constructive trust is one resulting from a conveyance of property in which no intention to create a trust can be inferred, but in which a court of equity will compel the person having legal title to hold it for the benefit of another. Thus, whenever the legal title to property has been fraudulently acquired, the person guilty of the fraud will be treated by the court as a trustee and compelled to turn the property over to the defrauded party. Because neither resulting nor constructive trusts are created by intention of the interested parties, neither is within the Statute of Frauds requiring the trust to be evidenced by writing. So I think it is very clear that the trust is not an entity that holds property but a contract (deed) between a settlor and trustee(s). The assets are owned by the trustee(s). Anyone employed by a trust is employed by the trustee(s). Any trading done by a trust is done by the trustee(s). There is no entity, only persons (settlor, trustee(s) and beneficaries). A trustee may be a natural person or a corporation (i.e. corporate trustee), but the trust itself is not a person or entity. The trust deed binds the trustee to use the assets held by the trustee in trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries. David Hillary

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