Cestui que

Wills, trusts and estates
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Related topics
Advance directive (Living will) Blind trust Forced heirship Totten trust
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Cestui que (/ˌsɛstwi ˈkeɪ/ SEST-wee KAY; also cestuy que, cestui a que) is a shortened version of "cestui a que use le feoffment fuit fait", lit. 'the person for whose use/benefit the feoffment was made'; in modern terms, it corresponds to a beneficiary. It is a Law French phrase of medieval English invention, which appears in the legal phrases cestui que trust, cestui que use, or cestui que vie.^[1] In contemporary English the phrase is also commonly pronounced /ˈsɛtikeɪ/ SET-ee-kay or /ˈsɛstikeɪ/ SEST-ee-kay. According to Roebuck, Cestui que use is pronounced /ˌsɛtɪkiˈjuːs/ SET-ik-ee-YOOSS.^[2] Cestui que use and cestui que trust are often interchangeable. In some medieval documents it is seen as cestui a que. In formal legal discourse it is often used to refer to the relative novelty of a trust itself, before that English term became acceptable.^[3]