The Appointors

The Appointors are the persons who hold the Power of Appointment. The Power of Appointment is the power to hire and fire the Trustees. This is therefore the ultimate control over the trust, and is the way a client has control over an Independent Trustee.

In a standard Family Trust situation the husband and wife, partners or individual involved would hold the Power of Appointment because it is effectively their Trust that they have the control over. Where there are two or more people involved the Power of Appointment would be held jointly, so that the individuals can’t fire each other off the Trust, or each individual would hold a separate power of appointment themselves.

Given that the Power of Appointment has such an influence on the control of the Trust and because it can be passed on as part of a person’s estate, every person who creates a Trust should also ensure that they are updating their Will at the same time. This then means that their Will can dictate who takes on the Power of Appointment once the person is deceased.