A Trust Is Confidence and a Legal Arrangement
Trust is firm belief in someone's reliability. In law it is a specific structure for holding property for another.
Trust is firm belief in the reliability of someone or something. In law it is something quite precise: an arrangement where one person holds property for the benefit of another. The idea grew from the Crusades, when knights left land in the hands of a friend to manage for their family — and English courts of equity then enforced the arrangement when the friend refused to return it. *Antitrust* law is named from the American business trusts it was created to break up.
- Confidence in reliability. *I trust her.*
- A legal arrangement. *A family trust.*
- Trustee — who holds it. *A trustee.*
- Antitrust — competition law. *Antitrust.*
- Old Norse — *traust*, confidence. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | trust | Trust. |
| Verb | trust | Trust him. |
| Agent | trustee | A trustee. |
| Adjective | trustworthy | Trustworthy. |
| Related | true | True. |
- She earned his trust.Confidence.
- The money is held in trust.Law.
- Antitrust law broke up the monopolies.Business.
How a legal trust works
- Settlor — the person who creates it and transfers the property
- Trustee — the person who holds and manages it
- Beneficiary — the person it is held for
- The trustee owns it legally, the beneficiary benefits from it
- Courts of equity developed the rules enforcing this split
Old Norse *traust*, confidence or protection, from the same Germanic root as *true*.
Where did legal trusts come from?
From medieval arrangements, associated with the Crusades, where a landowner left property with a friend to manage. Courts of equity then enforced the obligation.
Why is competition law called antitrust?
Because American monopolies of the late 1800s were organised as business trusts, and the laws were written to break them up.