Also known as: ascertainable beneficiary
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A requirement for creation of a valid private trust that the persons or class intended to benefit be identifiable with sufficient certainty. This permits a court to determine who holds equitable title and who possesses standing to enforce the trustee's fiduciary duties.
Leonard Price transferred funds to Metro Trust Company directing that the money maintain an annual holiday lighting display in the financial district. The instrument named no individuals or organizations as beneficiaries. Under modern trust law the arrangement qualifies as a valid noncharitable purpose trust even though no ascertainable beneficiaries exist, though enforcement is limited to twenty-one years.
Hartley Harper's will directed division of the residue among named family members and their descendants upon the death of the last surviving beneficiary. The court treated the phrase identifying all named or described beneficiaries living at the testator's death as supplying readily ascertainable measuring lives for the rule against perpetuities.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Ascertainable beneficiaries allow the court to identify who holds equitable title and who may enforce the trustee's duties. Without them a court cannot determine standing to compel performance or remedy breach.
No. Uniform Trust Code section 409(1) authorizes creation of a noncharitable purpose trust without a definite or definitely ascertainable beneficiary, provided the purpose is otherwise valid and enforcement does not exceed twenty-one years.
The trust fails for lack of ascertainable beneficiaries. Language directing distribution among heirs or such other persons the trustee deems deserving supplies no objective standard by which a court can identify class members.
Charitable trusts need not identify specific beneficiaries because they benefit the public or a sufficiently broad segment of it. The community at large supplies the enforcement interest that private trusts obtain from named beneficiaries.