Executory Trusts

Executory trusts. In the case of articles of agreement, made in contemplation of marriage, and which are consequently preparatory to a settlement, and in the case of those wills which are merely directory of a subsequent conveyance, the trusts declared by them are said to be executory or imperfect, because they require an ulterior act to raise and perfect them. They are rather considered as instructions for settlements than as instruments in themselves complete; and therefore Equity, in order to promote the presumed views of the parties in the one case and to support the manifest intention of the testator in the other, will attach to the words expressive of the trusts a more liberal and enlarged construction than they would admit if applied either to the limitation of a legal estate or a trust executed, 1 Sand. Uses and Trusts, 237, Lord Glenorchy v. Bosville, (1733) Cas Temp Talb 3; 1 W&TLC.