Overview

Unit trusts are used for Real Estate Funds, usually in common law jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey and Singapore. This guide by Nabarro explains what they are and how and why are they used.

The first unit trust was established by M&G in 1931. In recent times unit trusts have been utilised as both open and closed-ended investment vehicles holding a variety of assets. It is a flexible arrangement which allows investors to invest together and confers certain UK tax benefits over some other vehicles.

A unit trust is a form of trust where legal ownership of assets is vested in one or more trustees who hold the assets on trust for the benefit of the unitholders.

A unit trust is not a separate legal entity and the investors hold units representing their undivided share of the trust’s assets.

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