Expanding the ambit of Section 32 of the Trustee Act 1925? Womble Bond Dickinson (Trust Corporation) Limited v Glenn & Others [2021] EWHC 624; [2021] WTLR 737

Where beneficiaries of a trust have a contingent or reversionary entitlement to capital, section 32 of the Trustee Act 1925 empowers trustees to accelerate their enjoyment of that interest by paying over part of their share to them, although only with the consent of beneficiaries with prior interests. Can that power be exercised where the trusts are in Hancock v Watson form, i.e. there is an apparently absolute gift to a beneficiary but trusts are then engrafted or imposed on the beneficiary’s interest giving them only a life interest? The article considers the judgment in Womble Bond Dickinson (Trust Corporation) Ltd v Glenn which is the first ever decision on this question.