Who would have thought that the way beneficiaries are defined in a trust deed and the rights provided to them (or not for that matter) have a bearing on so many things – whether a beneficiary has any rights worthy of protection, whether they can ask for trust information, whether they can insist on the proper administration of the trust, whether they are entitled to any benefits, whether they have to be included in “beneficial owner” reporting to the Master and South African Revenue Service (Sars), and so on.
The Trust Property Control Act does not even define a beneficiary and is relatively silent as far as matters regarding the beneficiaries of a trust are concerned. The nature and rights of beneficiaries are accordingly determined with reference to the trust instrument and our common law.
The courts often confuse the rights beneficiaries have and some cases disqualify certain persons as
