Resulting trust

A resulting trust is an implied trust that comes into existence by operation of law, where property is transferred to someone who pays nothing for it; and then is implied to hold the property for the benefit of another person.

The trust property is said to "result" or revert to the transferor (as an implied settlor). This use of "result" means spring back:^[1] on the face of it the property in question has been transferred to the recipient (and indeed it has come into the recipient's legal ownership), but the legal owner is not permitted to benefit from it, and so beneficial ownership of the property springs back to the settlor.

Not all trusts where the settlor is also the beneficiary are resulting trusts. In common law systems, express trusts that clearly state the settlor as the beneficiary are typically not considered resulting trusts.^[2]