As the title suggests, this paper reviews the fundamentals of trust drafting, touching on these and other issues:  trust characteristics, the creation of a trust (express versus implied), the elements of a valid trust, common motivations for creating a trust and other issues like perpetuities, accumulations, fraudulent preferences, and issues under the Trustee Act.  It also discusses drafting issues and the key parts of a trust deed.  Bonus:  A comprehensive sample trust deed is attached.

This paper is part of a collection presented in April 2015 at LESA’s Drafting Your First Trust program.