[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-276712-105":53,"doc-detail-276712-en":127},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":120,"head_meta":122,"extra_data":124,"updated_unix":126},105,"en","is-their-wish-your-command-thoughts-for-trustees-and-settlors-on-letters-of-wishes-july-2021","Is Their Wish Your Command? Thoughts for Trustees and Settlors on Letters of Wishes - July 2021","","Letters of wishes are commonly provided by an economic settlor to trustees to express preferences for administering a trust. The article explains how trustees use these letters to understand rationale, asset utilisation, and family background, while emphasizing that the trust deed governs trustee powers and discretion. It highlights the need for keeping letters current and discusses a Bermuda case involving the relevance of settlor wishes and whether trustees must provide reasons for not following them.",{"@graph":63,"@context":119},[64,80,102],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":41,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/letters/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/is-their-wish-your-command-thoughts-for-trustees-and-settlors-on-letters-of-wishes-july-2021/276712/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/is-their-wish-your-command-thoughts-for-trustees-and-settlors-on-letters-of-wishes-july-2021/276712.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Alex Sinclair","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-20","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":101},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",9,{"@type":103,"mainEntity":104},"FAQPage",[105,111,115],{"name":106,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":108},"What is the purpose of a letter of wishes in a trust arrangement?","Question",{"text":109,"@type":110},"It lets the economic settlor communicate wishes to the trustees about how the trust should be administered, including how assets may be used and distributed. Trustees may use the letter as insight into the trust’s rationale and relevant background.","Answer",{"name":112,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":113},"Do letters of wishes bind trustees under trust law?",{"text":114,"@type":110},"No. The trust deed determines the trustees’ powers and discretion, and trustees must consider relevant factors when exercising that discretion.",{"name":116,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What problem can arise if letters of wishes are not updated?",{"text":118,"@type":110},"The stated wishes may become unsuitable years later. Practices appropriate at the trust’s inception may no longer fit developments after ten or more years.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":121,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":123,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":125,"site_id":56},276712,1790440600,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":128},{"doc_id":125,"user_id":129,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":130,"doc_module":9,"category_id":40,"category_name":41,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":131,"file_id":132,"file_url":133,"file_type":134,"file_size":135,"view_count":101,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":76,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":140,"read_time":9},1099523882182,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","July 2021 | Bermuda  \nIs their wish your command? Thoughts for trustees and settlors on letters of wishes  \nAuthor: Grace Quinn, Associate | Peter Pearman, Director, Global Head of Private Client & Trust  \nIt is common practice when a trust is established for the economic settlor to provide a letter of wishes, addressed to the trustees of the trust, setting out their wishes with respect to the administration of the trust. For the trustees, such letters are often a valuable insight into the rationale for the establishment of the trust, how the trust assets are to be utilised and other background information about the family of the settlor and/or beneficiaries.  \nSome settlors take the opportunity to set out prescriptive ‘rules’ about how the trust is to be managed, identifying assets that should remain in the family, particular investment guidelines and outlining when and to whom income and capital should be distributed. Some settlors take a more ‘hands off’ and principle based approach leaving the detail to the trustee to determine how the trust assets are invested and how they are distributed.  \nMost, if not all, letters of wishes will expressly state that the intention is not to bind the trustees and will acknowledge the right of the trustees to exercise their discretion in the management of the trust assets. As a matter of trust law, it is the trust deed which determines the trustee’s powers and not the letter of wishes. The trustee must take into account all relevant considerations when exercising their discretion.  \nA common issue with letters of wishes is that that they are not kept up to date. What may have been an appropriate letter of wishes atthe inception of the trust may no longer be suitable ten or more years later.  \nA recent Bermuda case in relation to letters of wishes is the R Trust which does not necessarily raise any new points of law but does provide a helpful reminder of issues which can arise with letters of wishes.  \nFactual Background – the R Trust  \nIn the R Trust, the trustees of the R Trust asked the Supreme Court of Bermuda to consider three key issues:  \n1. A Public Trustee v Cooper application seeking the Court’s approval of a momentous decision;  \n2. The relevance of the Settlor’s wishes; and  \n3. Whether or not the trustees were bound to give reasons for not following the wishes of the Settlor.  \nThe relevant Trust Deed was dated December 1995 and the beneficiaries were originally the daughter of the Settlor, the daughter’s issue, a university with which the Settlor had a connection and ‘any other charity’. The Settlor was added as a beneficiary in 1999 and the Settlor’s wife in 2007.  \nThe Settlor had only one daughter, from his first marriage, and the daughter had three children. The wife and the Settlor married in 2004 and the wife had four children from a previous marriage.  \nThe Trust Fund comprised a number of companies which in turn hold various investment portfolios. The Trust Fund also included a valuable property in the United States which was held via a company. This property was purchased in 1982 and it is said that the Settlor had an emotional connection to the property and it was considered important by the family more generally.  \nThe Settlor’s letter of wishes in 2008 acknowledged that the Trustee had discretion in respect of distributions of either income or capital and then went on to express his wishes in respect of the US property. In the letter of wishes the Settlor expressed the following;‘During my lifetime I would wish you to treat me … as primary beneficiary, entitled to the use and occupation of [the Property];  \nShould my wife …survive me then after my death, I would wish [the Wife] to have sole use and occupation of [the Property];  \nAfter [the Wife’s] death, I would wish my daughter … to be solely entitled to [the Property], to be utilized as to both income and capital as she desires’  \nIn the events that happened, the Settlor made a new will in 2011 and in that will","cbCaim2Siwoxmhrg","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaim2Siwoxmhrg","pdf",262817,"English","# Letters of wishes in trust administration\n## Purpose and value to trustees\n## Prescriptive vs principle-based approaches\n## Trustee discretion and the role of the trust deed\n# Keeping letters current\n# Bermuda case: the R Trust\n## Court issues and the trust deed timeline\n## Beneficiary changes and trust structure\n## Letter of wishes vs will outcomes\n## Trustees’ and wife’s positions","[{\"question\":\"What is the purpose of a letter of wishes in a trust arrangement?\",\"answer\":\"It lets the economic settlor communicate wishes to the trustees about how the trust should be administered, including how assets may be used and distributed. Trustees may use the letter as insight into the trust’s rationale and relevant background.\"},{\"question\":\"Do letters of wishes bind trustees under trust law?\",\"answer\":\"No. The trust deed determines the trustees’ powers and discretion, and trustees must consider relevant factors when exercising that discretion.\"},{\"question\":\"What problem can arise if letters of wishes are not updated?\",\"answer\":\"The stated wishes may become unsuitable years later. Practices appropriate at the trust’s inception may no longer fit developments after ten or more years.\"}]","Is Their Wish Your Command? Thoughts for Trustees and Settlors on Letters of Wishes - July 2021 | PDF",1789494948]