If someone has proposed a trust to your family, whoever is named as trustee cannot simply resign once he has accepted the office. A direction to hold and accumulate the income for a later generation is void beyond 18 years. Where your adult beneficiaries are all competent to contract and all of one mind, they can require the trustee to hand the trust property over to them.

The costs a family is quoted for a trust are real, and you can have all of them worked out before you commit. The three above are decided by clauses in the deed, and once it is signed those clauses stand.

What are the four disadvantages you will usually be quoted?

The four disadvantages a family is usually quoted are stamp duty on the property settled, a deed that in most cases cannot be undone, tax at the maximum marginal rate, and annual compliance.

Stamp duty is charged on the property you settle, because a settlement into a trust is stamped as a conveyance, and the charge falls when the property goes in. The rate belongs to your state. In Maharashtra, Article 61 of Schedule I to the Maharashtra Stamp Act charges a trust that disposes property at the conveyance rate that applies to property in a Municipal Corporation area. What creating a family trust costs carries the figures.

Irrevocability. A trust cannot be undone unless the deed reserves a power to revoke it. Section 78 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 leaves the settlor no way to undo the trust on his own, and the only other route is the consent of all the beneficiaries competent to contract.

The maximum marginal rate applies to the whole income where the deed does not expressly state the beneficiaries and their shares, under section 307(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

Annual compliance runs for as long as the trust does, because the trust is assessed as a separate person, with its own PAN under section 262 and its own return under section 263 of that Act.

Private family trust in India sets out all four in full with the worked figures, and the trust service page puts them next to what a registered will involves.

Related guides:

• Private family trust in India, the full guide including the four tax scenarios
• What creating a family trust costs, the government charges itemised
• How to register a family trust in India, the procedure state by state
• The Indian Trusts Act, 1882, the sections a private trust runs on

After the deed is signed, who actually controls the trust?

Where every beneficiary is an adult competent to contract, control of the trust sits with the beneficiaries. The settlor cannot undo it on his own once the deed is signed.

Section 56 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 gives a beneficiary the right to have the settlor's intention specifically executed to the extent of his own interest. The section then adds a second clause:

"where there is only one beneficiary and he is competent to contract, or where there are several beneficiaries and they are competent to contract and all of one mind, he or they may require the trustee to transfer the trust-property to him or them, or to such person as he or they may direct."

The illustration printed under that section is the exact structure Indian families buy a trust for. Government securities are given to trustees on trust to accumulate the interest until A attains the age of 24, and then to transfer the gross amount to him. The illustration says that A, on attaining majority, may as the person exclusively interested in the trust property require the trustees to transfer it to him immediately.

Every beneficiary must be competent to contract, and they must all be of one mind. The clause does not reach a trust whose class includes a minor, a generation not yet born, or one adult who disagrees with the others. It is also disapplied where property was transferred or bequeathed for the benefit of a married woman so that she shall not have power to deprive herself of her beneficial interest during her marriage. So the clause arises on a small determinate class of adults who agree.

Section 11 of the same Act sets out what the trustee is bound to follow. The trustee is bound to fulfil the purpose of the trust and "to obey the directions of the author of the trust given at the time of its creation, except as modified by the consent of all the beneficiaries being competent to contract." A direction given when the trust was created binds him, and a letter of wishes written five years later does not, because it was not given at the time of creation. The directions that do bind may then be modified by the consent of all the beneficiaries competent to contract, and the settlor's agreement is not required. Where a beneficiary is not competent to contract, the section allows a principal Civil Court to give that consent. It also provides that nothing in it requires a trustee to obey a direction where doing so would be impracticable, illegal or manifestly injurious to the beneficiaries.

A beneficiary can also sell his share. Section 58 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 provides that "the beneficiary, if competent to contract, may transfer his interest, but subject to the law for the time being in force as to the circumstances and extent in and to which he may dispose of such interest", and section 69 gives the buyer what the beneficiary had: "Every person to whom a beneficiary transfers his interest has the rights, and is subject to the liabilities, of the beneficiary in respect of such interest at the date of the transfer." The married woman proviso applies here as well, and the transfer remains subject to any other law in force that restricts it. Where a family settled a trust so that a holding would not fragment, an adult beneficiary with a stated share can put an outsider in his place, and a deed that says nothing about it has not stopped him.

A beneficiary who cannot get the trustee to act can go to the court. Section 61 gives a beneficiary the right to have the trustee compelled to perform a particular act of his duty and restrained from a contemplated or probable breach of trust. Section 74 lets him apply by petition to a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction for the appointment of a trustee or a new trustee, where a vacancy or disqualification has occurred and an appointment under section 73 has turned out to be impracticable.

Which of these a family is exposed to follows from the beneficiary class the deed creates. A trust settled on two or three adults with stated shares is inside section 56 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 from the day the youngest of them can contract, and a discretionary class that includes minors or a generation not yet born stays outside it. The class is settled while the deed is being drafted, and it is one of the first things we take up with a family.

Can your beneficiaries read the trust deed and the accounts?

Yes. Every beneficiary has a statutory right to inspect and take copies of the trust deed, and the same right covers the title documents, the accounts, the vouchers and the legal opinions the trustee took for his own guidance.

Section 57 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 gives the beneficiary a right, as against the trustee and all persons claiming under him with notice of the trust, "to inspect and take copies of the instrument of trust, the documents of title relating solely to the trust-property, the accounts of the trust-property and the vouchers (if any) by which they are supported, and the cases submitted and opinions taken by the trustee for his guidance in the discharge of his duty."

A trustee who takes counsel's advice on how to treat one beneficiary can be required by that beneficiary to produce the advice. Where a family settles a trust so that one heir does not learn what another is receiving, or so that the whole arrangement stays quiet until a death, section 57 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 gives every beneficiary named in the deed the right to see it.

The deed still decides who is a beneficiary, because the right belongs to the people the deed names, and that question is fixed on the day it is signed.

What are you agreeing to when you accept the office of trustee?

You are accepting an office you cannot resign from at will, and personal liability for loss while you hold it.

Section 46 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 says: "A trustee who has accepted the trust cannot afterwards renounce it except (a) with the permission of a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction, or (b) if the beneficiary is competent to contract, with his consent, or (c) by virtue of a special power in the instrument of trust."

Section 71 then names the six ways out. A trustee may be discharged by the extinction of the trust, by the completion of his duties under it, by such means as may be prescribed by the instrument of trust, by the appointment under the Act of a new trustee in his place, by the consent of himself and the beneficiary, or of all the beneficiaries where there is more than one and they are competent to contract, or by the Court on a petition for his discharge.

That petition is governed by section 72, which allows every trustee to apply to a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction to be discharged. The section then adds: "But where there is no such reason, the Court shall not discharge him, unless a proper person can be found to take his place." A trustee who has simply stopped wanting the job therefore stays in it until a replacement is found. Where the Court does find sufficient reason, it may discharge him and direct his costs to be paid out of the trust property.

Section 23 makes a trustee who commits a breach of trust personally liable to make good the loss the trust property or the beneficiary has sustained, unless the beneficiary induced the breach by fraud, or concurred in it or afterwards acquiesced in it with full knowledge of the facts and of his rights against the trustee, and without coercion or undue influence. The section then fixes the rate of interest he must account for. Where he ought to have received interest and did not, where he may fairly be presumed to have received it, or where the breach is unreasonable delay in paying trust money to the beneficiary, he accounts for "simple interest at the rate of six per cent. per annum, unless the Court otherwise directs". Where the breach consists in failure to invest trust money and to accumulate the interest or dividends on it, he is liable to account for "compound interest (with half-yearly rests) at the same rate". Compound interest attaches to the failure to invest, which is what happens in a family trust nobody is paying much attention to.

Section 27 makes the co-trustee who did nothing liable as well: "Where co-trustees jointly commit a breach of trust, or where one of them by his neglect enables the other to commit a breach of trust, each is liable to the beneficiary for the whole of the loss occasioned by such breach." The common Indian appointment is two brothers, or a father and a son, and section 27 makes the quieter of the two liable for the whole loss where his own neglect let the other cause it. As between the trustees themselves, one who has refunded the loss may compel contribution from a more guilty co-trustee, and a trustee guilty of fraud may not sue for contribution.

Section 30 limits what a trustee is answerable for. Subject to the instrument of trust and to sections 23 and 26, trustees are chargeable only for the moneys, stocks, funds and securities they each actually receive, are not answerable one for the other, nor for a banker, broker or other person in whose hands trust property is placed, nor for the insufficiency or deficiency of stocks, funds or securities, nor otherwise for involuntary losses. Because it is expressly subject to section 23, the protection it gives covers involuntary loss. Where there has been a breach, section 23 governs.

Section 32 lets a trustee reimburse himself out of the trust property for expenses he has properly incurred, and where he has paid out of his own pocket he has a first charge on the trust property. Unless those expenses were incurred with the sanction of a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction, that charge is enforced only by prohibiting any disposition of the trust property without previous payment of the expenses and the interest on them. And where the trust property fails, he may recover the amount from the beneficiary personally on whose behalf he acted and at whose request, express or implied, he made the payment.

Section 47 bars a trustee from delegating his office or any of his duties, except where the instrument of trust so provides, where the delegation is in the regular course of business, where it is necessary, or where a beneficiary competent to contract consents. Section 48 requires all the trustees to join in executing the trust except where the instrument of trust otherwise provides, and under section 50 the office is unpaid unless the deed says so.

Route (c) of section 71, "by such means as may be prescribed by the instrument of trust", decides whether stepping down is a letter to the other trustees or a petition to a civil court. A deed that prescribes a retirement mechanism, a mechanism for appointing the replacement, and an indemnity is doing work that otherwise falls on the Court. Those are the clauses a family most often finds missing at the moment they need them, and they are the ones we draft first.

Can an NRI or a beneficiary be your trustee?

An NRI can be appointed a trustee and so can a beneficiary, and in both cases the Act gives your beneficiaries a named ground to object.

Section 60 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 gives the beneficiary a right, expressly subject to the provisions of the instrument of trust, "that the trust-property shall be properly protected and held and administered by proper persons and by a proper number of such persons". Explanation I to that section then says who is not one: "A person domiciled abroad: an alien enemy: a person having an interest inconsistent with that of the beneficiary: a person in insolvent circumstances; and, unless the personal law of the beneficiary allows otherwise, a married woman and a minor."

Nothing in the Act says an NRI cannot be a trustee, and naming one does not make the appointment void. Explanation I gives the beneficiary a ground to raise, and the illustrations printed under the section show what raising it can achieve. A beneficiary who proves the property is in danger from the trustee being in insolvent circumstances may obtain a receiver of the trust property. A trustee who goes to reside permanently out of India, or is declared an insolvent, or compounds with his creditors, or suffers a co-trustee to commit a breach of trust, may be removed on the beneficiary's suit.

Section 73 approaches it from the other end, and treats a trustee who "is for a continuous period of six months absent from India, or leaves India for the purpose of residing abroad" as one of the occasions on which a new trustee may be appointed in his place. The other occasions it names are disclaimer, death, insolvency, a desire to be discharged, refusal, unfitness or personal incapacity in the opinion of a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction, and the acceptance of an inconsistent trust.

The commonest appointment in an Indian family trust is the eldest son as both a trustee and a beneficiary, and "a person having an interest inconsistent with that of the beneficiary" sits on the same list as a person domiciled abroad.

Section 60 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 opens "subject to the provisions of the instrument of trust", so the deed can settle all of this: who is appointed, what happens when a trustee moves abroad or stops being available, and how a replacement is made without going to court. Where a family's natural choice of trustee lives outside India, we write that into the deed.

How long can a family trust hold and accumulate the income?

A direction that the income of settled property be accumulated is void beyond the longer of the transferor's life and 18 years from the date of the transfer. At the end of that period the property and its income fall to be dealt with as if the accumulation period had run out.

Section 17(1) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 states it:

"Where the terms of a transfer of property direct that the income arising from the property shall be accumulated either wholly or in part during a period longer than: (a) the life of the transferor, or (b) a period of eighteen years from the date of the transfer, such direction shall, save as hereinafter provided, be void to the extent to which the period during which the accumulation is directed exceeds the longer of the aforesaid periods, and at the end of such last-mentioned period the property and the income thereof shall be disposed of as if the period during which the accumulation has been directed to be made had elapsed."

Section 17(2) then carves out three purposes. The section does not affect a direction for accumulation for the payment of the debts of the transferor or of any other person taking an interest under the transfer, for the provision of portions for children or remoter issue of the transferor or of any other person taking an interest under the transfer, or for the preservation or maintenance of the property transferred. The second of those covers a great many family settlements, and whether a particular direction falls inside it is decided by the wording of that deed.

A trust made by will is on the same footing, measured from the death. Section 117(1) of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 voids a direction to accumulate beyond a period of eighteen years from the death of the testator, and section 117(2) carries the same three carve-outs worded for a will.

The outer limit on the vesting itself comes from the rule against perpetuity, at section 14 of the Transfer of Property Act and section 114 of the Indian Succession Act. Between them they stop an interest taking effect after the lifetime of one or more persons living at the date of the transfer or at the testator's death, and the minority of some person in existence at the expiration of that period.

Section 18 of the Transfer of Property Act lifts both restrictions for a public trust. It provides that the restrictions in sections 14, 16 and 17 do not apply to a transfer of property for the benefit of the public in the advancement of religion, knowledge, commerce, health, safety, or any other object beneficial to mankind. A charitable trust can therefore be perpetual and can accumulate. Sections 14 and 17 continue to bind a private family trust.

Section 17 attaches to a direction to accumulate, and its carve-outs are expressed as purposes, so what the deed says the accumulation is for matters as much as the period it is directed to run for. Because neither can be corrected afterwards, both the purpose and the period have to be settled while the deed is being drafted.

What can the trustee do with the property if the deed is silent?

Where the deed is silent, section 20 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 narrows the trustee's investment power to the securities the deed authorises or the Central Government has notified in the Official Gazette.

Where trust property consists of money and cannot be applied immediately or at an early date to the purposes of the trust, the trustee is to invest it, "subject to any direction contained in the instrument of trust", in the securities or class of securities "expressly authorised by the instrument of trust or as specified by the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette". The Explanation to the section gives "securities" the meaning assigned to it in clause (h) of section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, so the word carries that statutory definition wherever it appears in section 20. Section 20 was substituted in its entirety by Act 34 of 2016 with effect from 17 April 2017, so the list of investments the section used to name is no longer in it.

The proviso to the same section adds a consent requirement. Where there is a person competent to contract and entitled in possession to receive the income of the trust property for his life, or for any greater estate, no investment in those securities may be made without his consent in writing. The condition applies only to a beneficiary who is competent to contract and entitled in possession to the income. In the standard family structure, income to the widow for her life and corpus to the children afterwards, that person is the widow. Where the deed is silent, the trustee cannot invest without her written consent, and the children cannot outvote her.

Letting the property has a ceiling of its own. The closing paragraph of section 36 provides that except with the permission of a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction, no trustee shall lease trust property "for a term exceeding twenty-one years from the date of executing the lease, nor without reserving the best yearly rent that can be reasonably obtained". For a family that has settled commercial property into a trust, the best-rent requirement is the one to watch, because a lease at a concessional rent to a relative or to a family company is not within the trustee's power. Unlike the opening words of section 36, that closing paragraph is not expressed as subject to the instrument of trust; it is qualified only by the Court's permission.

Section 20 opens "subject to any direction contained in the instrument of trust", so the investment clause in the deed decides this, and it has to name the asset classes the family actually holds. We settle the life beneficiary's written consent at the drafting stage, before it can become a deadlock.

Does a family trust put the assets beyond a creditor?

A family trust does not put assets beyond a creditor by itself, and it does very little about a creditor who already existed when the trust was made.

Section 4 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 requires a lawful purpose. A purpose is unlawful where it is forbidden by law, where it is of such a nature that if permitted it would defeat the provisions of any law, where it is fraudulent, where it involves or implies injury to the person or property of another, or where the Court regards it as immoral or opposed to public policy. Every trust of which the purpose is unlawful is void. Illustration (c) printed under that section puts the case directly: "A, while in insolvent circumstances, transfers property to B in trust for A during his life, and after his death for B. A is declared an insolvent. The trust for A is invalid as against his creditors."

Section 53(1) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 is the general rule for immovable property: "Every transfer of immoveable property made with intent to defeat or delay the creditors of the transferor shall be voidable at the option of any creditor so defeated or delayed." The same sub-section preserves the rights of a transferee in good faith and for consideration, leaves any law in force relating to insolvency unaffected, and requires a creditor's suit to avoid such a transfer to be instituted on behalf of, or for the benefit of, all the creditors.

Section 53(1) turns on intent, and it is written for the settlement made once a creditor problem already exists. Whatever protection a trust gives therefore runs forward from the date it was made, and a voluntary settlement can still be unwound in an insolvency. A family settling property on their children while solvent, with no creditor in sight, is not within section 53(1).

So the date a trust is settled decides this. Where protection is part of why a family is considering a trust, the debts and claims outstanding today are what we go through before a deed is drafted.

What is taxed at the maximum marginal rate, and what has to be filed?

Business profits are charged at the maximum marginal rate even where the deed states the beneficiaries and their shares. The PAN requirement reaches further than the trust itself, because section 262(1)(e) names the trustees and the author of the trust personally.

Section 307(3) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 provides that, subject to section 307(4), where the income received by a trustee under a trust declared by a duly executed instrument in writing consists of, or includes, profits and gains of business, tax is charged at the maximum marginal rate on that income or that part of it. Stating determinate shares under sections 303 and 304 does not save it. Section 307(4) is the only exception and it is narrow: profits receivable under a trust declared by will exclusively for the benefit of a relative dependent on the settlor for support and maintenance, where that is the only trust so declared by him, are charged at the rate applicable to an association of persons.

Section 307(3) charges profits and gains of business, which is narrower than it first looks. Holding shares in a family company and receiving dividends is not carrying on a business, so a trust that holds a shareholding is not touched by section 307(3), and a trust that carries on the trade is, on those profits.

Section 2(70) defines the maximum marginal rate as the rate of income-tax, including surcharge, applicable in relation to the highest slab of income for an individual, association of persons or body of individuals, as specified in the Finance Act of the relevant year. The figure therefore moves with each year's Finance Act.

Section 262(1)(d) applies to a resident other than an individual which enters into a financial transaction aggregating to Rs 2,50,000 or more in a tax year. Section 262(1)(e) then names "the managing director, director, partner, trustee, author, founder, karta, chief executive officer, principal officer or office bearer" of that person, or any person competent to act on its behalf. A trust is a resident other than an individual, so once it crosses that threshold the trustees and the author of the trust are named in the same provision as the trust.

Section 263(1)(a)(iii) requires a return from a person other than a company or a firm where his total income, or the total income of any other person in respect of which he is assessable, exceeded the maximum amount which is not chargeable to income-tax. Section 263(1)(b) makes the obligation unconditional, regardless of income or loss, only for the persons in clauses (a)(i), (a)(ii), (a)(v), (a)(vi), (a)(vii) and (a)(ix), which are a company, a firm, a university or institution, a business trust, an investment fund, and a resident holding or beneficially interested in foreign assets. A private family trust falls under (a)(iii) and is not on that list. The Table at section 263(1)(c) sets 31 July for any other assessee, and 31 October for a person other than a company whose accounts are required to be audited.

Clause (a)(ix)(B) covers a resident who is a beneficiary of any asset, including any financial interest in an entity, located outside India, and section 263(1)(b) makes that obligation unconditional. So an Indian resident who is the beneficiary of a trust holding a foreign asset files whatever the income.

A trust made without a written deed is charged at the maximum marginal rate outright. Section 308(1) provides that where a trustee receives or is entitled to receive income on behalf or for the benefit of any person under an oral trust, then irrespective of anything contained in any other provision of that Act, tax is charged on that income at the maximum marginal rate. Section 303(2) is the way back: a trust not declared by a duly executed instrument in writing may be deemed to be one, where a statement in writing signed by the trustees, setting out the purposes of the trust, the trustees, the beneficiaries and the trust property, is forwarded to the Assessing Officer within three months of the declaration of the trust.

Section 307(5) tests the deed as it stood on the day it was signed, so the tax position of a family trust is decided while the deed is being drafted. Whether a family business goes into the trust as a shareholding or as a trade is a question to settle before the deed is written, and we raise it with any family that owns one.

Would a registered will do the same job?

For a good many families a registered will does the same job, and that is worth settling before a deed is drafted. Where the estate passes to one or two capable adults, and nothing has to be held or managed for years afterwards, a registered will does it without the stamp duty a settlement of property attracts and without any of the obligations above. WillJini drafts both instruments, and where a registered will does the job, that is what we will tell you.

The trust service page sets the two side by side, and Private family trust in India carries the full case for a trust where one is the right answer.

FAQs

What is the disadvantage of a family trust?

The disadvantages of a family trust divide into the ones you can price and the ones the deed decides. The priced ones are stamp duty on property settled into the trust, a deed that usually cannot be undone, tax at the maximum marginal rate under section 307(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 where the shares are not stated, and a separate PAN and return. The ones the deed decides include the statutory right of every beneficiary to inspect the deed and the accounts under section 57 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, a trustee's inability to renounce the office under section 46 of that Act, and the 18 year ceiling on a direction to accumulate income under section 17 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.

What are the disadvantages of forming a family trust in India?

Most of the disadvantages of a family trust are fixed at the moment it is formed. Stamp duty falls at the moment of settlement, the beneficiary class named in the deed decides who can later require the property to be transferred out under section 56 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, and section 307(5) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 tests the deed as it stood on the day it was signed. A deed that prescribes no retirement mechanism for a trustee leaves section 72 of the Indian Trusts Act as the route, which is a petition to a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction.

Can the beneficiaries of a family trust force the trustee to hand over the property?

Where there is one beneficiary competent to contract, or several who are all competent to contract and all of one mind, section 56 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 lets them require the trustee to transfer the trust property to them or as they direct. It does not apply where any beneficiary is a minor, is not yet born, or disagrees, and it is disapplied for property settled on a married woman so that she shall not have power to deprive herself of her beneficial interest during her marriage.

Can a beneficiary see the trust deed and the accounts?

Yes. Section 57 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 gives a beneficiary the right to inspect and take copies of the instrument of trust, the documents of title relating solely to the trust property, the accounts and the vouchers supporting them, and the cases submitted and opinions taken by the trustee for his own guidance in discharging his duty.

Can a trustee of a family trust resign?

A trustee who has accepted the office cannot resign at will. Section 46 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 allows him to renounce it only with the permission of a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction, with the consent of a beneficiary competent to contract, or by virtue of a special power in the instrument of trust. Under section 72, where there is no sufficient reason for the discharge, the Court shall not discharge him unless a proper person can be found to take his place.

Can an NRI be the trustee of an Indian family trust?

An NRI can be appointed, and Explanation I to section 60 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 names a person domiciled abroad among those who are not proper persons within the meaning of that section. That gives a beneficiary a ground to object, and the appointment itself stands. Section 60 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 is expressly subject to the provisions of the instrument of trust. Section 73 separately treats six months' continuous absence from India, or leaving India in order to reside abroad, as an occasion for appointing a new trustee.

How long can a family trust accumulate income?

A family trust can accumulate income until the longer of the transferor's life and 18 years from the date of the transfer. Beyond that, section 17(1) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 makes the direction void as to the excess, and the property and its income are then dealt with as if the accumulation period had run out. Section 17(2) carves out accumulation for the payment of debts, for the provision of portions for children or remoter issue, and for the preservation or maintenance of the property. For a trust made by will, section 117 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 sets the same period from the testator's death.

Is a family trust safe from creditors in India?

On its own, a family trust does not put property beyond the reach of a creditor. Illustration (c) to section 4 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 gives the case of a settlor who transfers property in trust for himself while in insolvent circumstances, and states that the trust for him is invalid as against his creditors. Section 53(1) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 makes a transfer of immovable property made with intent to defeat or delay creditors voidable at the option of any creditor so defeated or delayed, subject to the rights of a transferee in good faith and for consideration.