The alter ego principal and inter vivos Trusts – BEWARE!
27 October 2015, Adél Schoeman
The effective management and administration of a Trust requires much more than merely signing the Trust Deed and the subsequent... issuing of the Letter of Authority by the Master of the High Court. The purpose of an inter vivos Trust is, after all, to manage at all times the assets in the Trust to the advantage of the beneficiaries of the Trust. Therefore the alter ego principle, which occurs more often than we think, can have a big influence on the rulings of the courts when it comes to the question of whether a Founder and/or Trustee is indeed one and the same as his or her Trust.