Beneficiary v Trustee - Succeeding in Applications for Trust Information

Introduction

Beneficiaries have standing to hold trustees to account in their administration of a trust, and there is an expectation that beneficiaries will be given sufficient information to do so.

However, trustees may have to weigh competing considerations of confidentiality and the interests of other parties, and they may decide not to disclose.

How can beneficiaries succeed in challenging a decision they don’t agree with?

How can trustees successfully defend a court application by a beneficiary in appropriate circumstances?

To answer this question, this short webinar will explore the litigation tools available to both sides and lessons from recent cases.

The webinar will teach principles to help trustees and their advisors navigate trustee duties in contentious matters and it will also discuss how litigants can reduce their exposure to costs orders.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The legal basis of a beneficiary’s entitlement to trust information
• The beneficiary perspective:
• Available remedies - the court’s inherent jurisdiction to supervise trusts, the CPR, applications for an account, pre-action disclosure, third party disclosure orders and more
• Update on disclosure under data protection legislation - life after Dawson-Damer v Taylor Wessing LLP which brought about changes in data protection legislation in the UK and beyond
• Update on disclosure under legal privilege after Al Sadeq v Dechert LLP
• The trustee perspective:
• Potential responses - directions, confidentiality orders and considerations regarding voluntary disclosure
• Trustee duties in contentious cases - managing conflicting interests without getting removed; when to remain neutral and when to join the fray
• Responding to requests under data protection legislation
• Techniques for dispute avoidance

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Thursday 30th April 2026

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 1,900+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.