Advancement, promotion; additional price. An advancement clause in a settlement or will is a provision authorizing the trustees, with the consent of the tenant for life, to pay by anticipation a limited portion of the share to which a remainderman will ultimately be entitled for his benefit or advancement in life.
In equity the presumption of advancement is an important exception to the doctrine of resulting trusts that a conveyance to a stranger without a consideration is merely a nominal one, and no intention on the face of it of conferring the beneficial interests will result to the grantor. The presumption of advancement generally arises where a person advances money for the purchase of any property or right in the name of another for whom the purchaser is under a legal or even in some cases a moral obligation to provide. It will arise in favour of a wife, legitimate children, and in some cases in regard to persons to whom the purchaser stands in loco parentis, but it has been held not to arise where the money was advanced for a purchaser in the name of a wife who had not been legally married, Soar v. Foster, 4 K&J 152 or of a mistress, Rider v. Kidder, 10 Ves 360. A purchase by a parent in the joint names of himself and his child and a stranger will be held an advancement for the child to the extent of the interest vested in him, the stranger, however, holding the interest vested in him in trust for the parent. The presumption of advancement is rebuttable by parol or other extrinsic evidence. In all cases the whole of the surrounding circumstances must be considered (Re Whitehouse, 37 C. D. 683). See Lewin on Trusts.
By the A. of (English) E. Act, 1925, s. 47 (1) (iii.) (replacing s. 3 of the Statute of Distribution), any money or property which has been paid or settled by way of advancement or on the marriage of a child shall, subject to any contrary intention expressed or appearing, be brought into account and taken towards satisfaction of the child's share in the intestate estate as provided by the (English) A. E. Act, 1925. The child may elect not to take under the intestacy (see Wolst. & Ch. Conv. Acts, vol. 2, p. 1502).
A power conferred by settlement upon trustees authorizing them to advance a part (or the whole) of the estate or funds to which a beneficiary may ultimately become entitled under the will or settlement for his or her benefit before the period of enjoyment or vesting. The (English) Trustee Act, 1925, s. 32, confers very wide powers on trustees (extended in the case of intestacies by s. 47(1) of the (English) A. E. Act, 1925, to personal representa-tives) to advance up to one half of the beneficiary's interest in personal property and proceeds of a trust for sale of land, subject to the protection of interests prior to the interest of the beneficiary and other conditions as provided by s. 32 of the (English) Trustee Act, 1925. The s. only applies to trusts constituted or created after 1925 and does not extend the power to land or capital money for the purposes of the (English) S. L. A., 1925. In all settlements of land other than by way of trust for sale, a power of advancement should be conferred expressly if so intended by the settlement see Lewin on Trusts.