The appointor holds a powerful role within a trust, so it’s important to get it right! Here are some common arrangements for appointors. Select the arrangement most suitable for your client, add their details and we’ll show you a preview of the clause that will appear in the trust schedule.
| Appointor Arrangement | Brief definition based on the rights of survivorship |
| Sole Appointor | One appointor and upon their death or automatic removal under this deed, their legal personal representative (LPR). |
| Joint Appointors | Common for family trusts, where last remaining appointor is replaced by their LPR (i.e., as each appointor dies, is made bankrupt or loses mental capacity, they are removed as an appointor without being replaced, and the surviving appointors continue as the appointors, until there is only one left – if and when that appointor dies/is made bankrupt/loses mental capacity, their LPR becomes the new appointor. |
| Separate Appointors | Upon the death or automatic removal under this deed of each appointor their respective LPR replaces them as appointor. |
| Sole Appointor and Independent Appointor | Where an external party (e.g. accountant) acts with the appointor(s) but when they die or are automatically removed under this deed, they are not replaced, and they can never be the sole appointor. If the Sole (non-independent) Appointor dies or is automatically removed before the Independent Appointor, the LPR of that Appointor becomes the Appointor. |
| Joint Appointors and Independent Appointor | Where an external party (e.g. accountant) acts with the appointor(s) but when they die or are automatically removed under this deed, they are not replaced, and they can never be the sole appointor. If the last remaining (non-independent) Appointors dies or is automatically removed before the Independent Appointor, the LPR of the last remaining (non-independent) Appointor(s) becomes the Appointor. |
| Appointor(s) and Nominated Backup Appointor | Appointor one acts as Appointor and in the event of their death or automatic removal under this deed, a specific person to step in as Appointor. |
| Company Appointor* and Nominated Backup Appointor(s) | Appointor one is a company and acts until it is wound up/deregistered/cannot act as appointor etc. and is then replaced by appointor two (commonly a director of the company). |
*Note that, where the current trustee is a corporation, control of that corporation will also depend on the identity of the directors and, consequently, the shareholders of that company. Refer, eg, the case of Rafferty v Time 2000 West Pty Ltd (No 9) [2011] FCA 1483, where the shareholder of a trustee company was made bankrupt, his shares in the company vested in his trustees in bankruptcy, and those trustees, as the shareholders of the company, then appointed themselves as directors of the company. The bankrupt’s wife was the appointor of the trust, and she wanted to utilise this power to remove the company as trustee of the trust, but the trustees in bankruptcy successfully applied to the court to restrain her from exercising her powers.