Equity and trusts exams reward precise rules applied to facts. A useful flashcard should make you retrieve a rule, its limit and—where it helps—an authority. It should not reduce a contested or jurisdiction-specific doctrine to a universal slogan.
The deck below covers common-law principles often taught in Equity and Trusts courses. The law and terminology differ between jurisdictions, and some rules have been altered by statute or developed differently by local courts. Before studying, check your syllabus and replace or qualify any rule that does not match the jurisdiction you are assessed on. In particular, verify rules on presumed resulting trusts, constitution of gifts and trusts, and equitable remedies.
Work through the cards one at a time. Read the question, retrieve the answer before turning the card, then compare your answer with the reverse. Use the four grade buttons to record how well you recalled it: grade a card low if you missed a qualification or could not name the key test. A correct-sounding phrase without its application is not reliable recall.
A MySummaries deck on this topic ends up looking like this:
Cards — Equity and Trusts — Core principles18 due
What are the three certainties required for an express private trust?
Certainty of intention, subject matter and objects: Knight v Knight.
All 18 cards
What are the three certainties required for an express private trust?Certainty of intention, subject matter and objects: Knight v Knight.
Do words expressing a hope or wish necessarily create a trust?No. Precatory language alone is not conclusive; determine objectively whether the settlor intended to impose a binding obligation.
What must be certain about trust property?The property must be identifiable with sufficient certainty; an uncertain or unsegregated subject matter may make the trust fail.
What is the objects test for a fixed trust?The beneficiaries must be identifiable so the complete list can be drawn up: IRC v Broadway Cottages Trust.
What is the usual objects test for a discretionary trust?It must be possible to say of any given person whether they are or are not within the class: McPhail v Doulton. Check local law and any separate administrative-workability issue.
What is the beneficiary principle for a private trust?A private trust generally needs identifiable beneficiaries who can enforce it; a purpose with no beneficiary will generally fail, subject to recognised exceptions such as charitable trusts.
What is the rule in Milroy v Lord on an incompletely constituted trust or gift?Equity will not perfect an imperfect gift or assist a volunteer: the transfer must be completed using the legally required method.
What is the Re Rose principle, where recognised?For a transfer of shares, the gift may be treated as effective in equity once the donor has done everything required of them to transfer the shares; check the governing jurisdiction's rule.
What are the key conditions for the Strong v Bird rule, where recognised?An intended immediate gift must remain the donor's intention until death, and the intended recipient must become the donor's executor or administrator; the doctrine can perfect the gift.
When may a presumed resulting trust arise on a purchase?In jurisdictions that recognise the presumption, a contribution to the purchase price may support a resulting trust in proportion to the contribution, subject to evidence of a different intention and local rules.
What is the core fiduciary no-conflict rule?A fiduciary must avoid a conflict between duty and personal interest, or between duties, unless properly authorised; Keech v Sandford illustrates the strict approach.
Must a fiduciary make a profit before the no-profit rule can be breached?No. An unauthorised profit made through the fiduciary position may be accountable even without fraud or loss to the principal; Regal (Hastings) Ltd v Gulliver is a leading authority.
How can a fiduciary obtain permission to act despite a conflict?By fully informed consent from the person or persons entitled to authorise the conflict, obtained before the relevant conduct; the required decision-maker depends on the relationship and governing law.
What is the basic role of equitable tracing?Tracing is a process for identifying value through substitutions; it is not itself a remedy. A proprietary claim, its requirements and available defences must be established separately.
Name two equitable remedies and one general qualification on their availability.Specific performance and injunctions are examples. Equitable remedies are discretionary, and their requirements and defences depend on the claim and jurisdiction.
What does the clean hands maxim mean in an equitable claim?A claimant's relevant misconduct connected with the matter may bar equitable relief; it is not a general test of whether the claimant is morally blameless.
What is laches?Equitable relief may be refused where the claimant delayed unreasonably and the delay makes relief inequitable, often because of resulting prejudice; apply the local test.
What are the central elements commonly considered in proprietary estoppel?An assurance relating to rights in property, reliance and detriment are commonly considered, with unconscionability informing the analysis; the formulation and remedy are fact-sensitive and jurisdiction-dependent.
A common-law Equity and Trusts deck of 18 prompts and answers for active recall.
That is a MySummaries deck, filled with equity and trusts material. Yours is written from your own notes. Start free
Turn the card, then test the boundary
The first cards test the three certainties and the trust property. Say all three certainties, then explain why a court needs to identify the property and the beneficiaries before it can supervise performance. For objects, do not mix the tests: a fixed trust requires a complete list, while the usual discretionary-trust test asks whether a person is or is not within the class. The distinction is a common source of lost marks.
Next, distinguish an intended trust from an intended gift. Milroy v Lord is a useful starting point for an incomplete transfer, but do not treat Re Rose or Strong v Bird as general permission to bypass formalities. Their operation depends on particular conditions and the law of the jurisdiction. If your course includes other routes to constitution, add them from your own materials and learn their separate requirements.
The fiduciary cards are best learned as a short sequence: identify the fiduciary relationship and scope of duty; identify the conflict or profit; ask whether there was valid authorisation or informed consent; then state the remedy sought. The strictness of the no-profit rule does not remove the need to prove that the profit arose within the relevant fiduciary duty. For a problem question, connect the rule to the facts rather than stopping at the case name.
When you turn a card, grade the answer you actually gave, not the answer you recognise once it is visible. If you recalled the rule but omitted a key condition, use a lower grade. Revisit low-grade cards in later sessions and try to state the rule in a new factual setting. This helps expose whether you have learned a test or only memorised its wording.
Must not miss core
The deck is cut from a short checklist. Learn these anchors first, then add the detail and qualifications from your course. Treat each line as a retrieval prompt: explain the rule and identify where jurisdiction-specific verification is needed.
A board on this topic ends up looking like this:
Must not miss coreEquity and Trusts — Core principles
Express private trust: certainty of intention, subject matter and objects — Knight v Knight.
Objects: fixed trust requires a complete list; the usual discretionary-trust test is whether it can be said of a person that they are or are not in the class — check jurisdiction and any workability requirement.
Constitution: equity will not perfect an imperfect gift or assist a volunteer — Milroy v Lord; any recognised exception has its own conditions.
Fiduciaries: avoid unauthorised conflicts and profits; informed consent may authorise conduct, while remedies and accounting rules depend on the claim and local law.
The four high-priority rules used to build the Equity and Trusts recall deck.
Repair the exact gap
A general instruction such as “revise trusts” is difficult to act on. Remediation works better when it asks for the precise distinction you missed. If you repeatedly confuse the objects tests, make yourself state both tests and apply them to one named beneficiary and one borderline person. Then return to the relevant card and grade it again.
A card written after losing the same distinction twice might read:
Remediation tray
You lost this distinction twice: for a fixed trust and a discretionary trust, state the objects test for each and explain why a complete list is required for the fixed trust.
Add cardDismiss
A targeted reminder to repair a repeated confusion between fixed and discretionary trust objects tests.
Keep a short record of jurisdictional variations beside your deck. For example, mark a card “check local rule” where the authority or statutory position differs from the one taught in your course. That is more useful than memorising an unqualified rule that may be wrong for your assessment. Add case names only where they help you explain the legal proposition; a list of authorities is not a substitute for stating the test.
How MySummaries helps
Build an Equity and Trusts revision board from your own notes, slides or photographed pages, then make flashcards from the rules you need to retrieve. Low-confidence cards can guide the next review session, while written practice can test whether you can apply the same rules to a problem question. Explore MySummaries.
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