Beneficiaries’ Right to Trust Information

Abstract Beneficiaries’ right to receive trust information has exercised trustees and beneficiaries alike for many decades and in the new ‘Information Age’, knowledge, and access to information, represent both power and an asset. Providing information to a beneficiary can have consequences for fiduciaries and beneficiaries alike and a survey of trust jurisdictions reveals different approaches to the balancing act required to weigh competing interests regarding information disclosure. Approaches diverge according to the doctrinal foundation of trusts in the Anglo-Saxon tradition as compared with the civil law approach. However, this divergence is modified in some parts of the trust world, by statutory provisions designed to achieve policy objectives which include, for example, the preservation of confidentiality for trustees, beneficiaries and/or third parties, and the rights of individuals to oversee the use of their personal data by others. It is important for practitioners and all those involved in trusts to understand these factors which have influenced the development of trust law, to anticipate and interrogate how questions concerning beneficiaries’ rights to trust information will be resolved. In this chapter we analyse the types of trust information beneficiaries may be entitled to as of right or otherwise be able to obtain.