The law of wills and trusts
Part of the common law series
Inheritance
Intestacy  · Testator  · Probate
Power of appointment
Simultaneous death  · Slayer rule
Disclaimer of interest
Types of will
Holographic will  · Will contract
Living will
Joint wills and mutual wills
Parts of a will
Codicil  · Attestation clause
Incorporation by reference
Residuary clause
Problems of property disposition
Lapse and anti-lapse
Ademption  · Abatement
Acts of independent significance
Elective share  · Pretermitted heir
Contesting a will
Testamentary capacity
Undue influence
Types of Trusts
Express trust  · Asset-protection trust
Accumulation and maintenance trust
Interest in possession trust  · Bare trust
Protective trust  · Spendthrift trust
Life insurance trust  · Remainder trust
Life interest trust  · Reversionary interest trust
Charitable trust  · Honorary trust
Resulting trust  · Constructive trust
Special needs trust: (general)/(U.S.)
Doctrines governing trusts
Pour-over will  · Cy pres doctrine
Other areas of the common law
Contract law  · Tort law  · Property law
Criminal law  · Evidence

In common law jurisdictions the Cy-près doctrine ((pronounced as see-pray) is a legal doctrine of the Court of equity. It allows the Court to amend the terms of a charitable trust as near (Cy-prés) as possible to the original intention of the testator or settlor, where the original intended purpose is impossible, impracticable or illegal. This prevents the trust from failing. For example, if you were to leave a set amount of money on trust on order "to provide for the continuation of the sunday school scheme at St. Mary's Church in Stoke" and for some reason this church ceases to exist, the doctrine can be invoked in order to use the money to provide for a similar scheme. Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ... Weighing scales represent the way law balances peoples interests For other senses of this word, see Law (disambiguation). ... In the common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the testator) regulates the rights of others over his property or family after death. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies owning property greater than the sum of his or her enforceable debts and funeral expenses without having made a valid will or other binding declaration; alternatively where such a will or declaration has been made, but only applies... A testator is a person who has made a legally binding will or testament, which specifies what is to be done with that persons penis family and/or property after death. ... Probate is the legal process of settling the estate of a deceased person; specifically, resolving all claims and distributing the decedents property. ... A power of appointment is a term most frequently used in the law of wills to describe the ability of the testator (the person writing the will) to select a person who will be given the authority to dispose of certain property under the will. ... Simultaneous death is a problem of inheritence which occurs when two people (usually a husband and wife) die at the same time in an accident. ... The slayer rule, in the common law of inheritance, is a doctrine that prohibits inheritence by a person who murders someone from whom they stand to inherit. ... Disclaimer of interest (also called a renunciation), in the law of inheritance, wills and trusts, is a term that describes an attempt by a person to renounce their legal right to benefit from an inheritance (either under a will or through intestacy) or through a trust. ... In the common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the testator) regulates the rights of others over his property or family after death. ... A holographic will is a will and testament that has been entirely handwritten and signed by the testator. ... A will contract is a term used in the law of wills describing a contract to exchange a current performance for a future bequest. ... A living will, also called will to live, advance health directive, or advance health care directive, is a specific type of power of attorney or health care proxy or advance directive. ... -1... In the common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the testator) regulates the rights of others over his property or family after death. ... A codicil for a will is a small change (much like a Postscript (P.S.)) to the will that does not require a rewrite of the document. ... In the statutory law of wills and trusts, an attestation clause is a clause that is typically appended to a will, often just below the place of the testators signature. ... Incorporation by reference is a doctrine of the common law of wills by which a person may state in his will that certain property is to be disposed of by a seperate document, describing the place where the document will be found. ... A residuary estate, in the law of wills, is any portion of the testators estate that is not specifically devised to someone in the will, or any property that is part of such a specific devise that fails. ... Lapse and anti-lapse are complementary concepts under the law of wills, which address the disposition of property that is willed to someone who dies before the testator (the writer of the will). ... Ademption is a term used in the law of wills to determine what happens when property bequested under a will is no longer in the testators estate when the testator dies. ... Abatement (derived through the French abattre, from the Late Latin battere, to beat), a beating down or diminishing or doing away with; a term used especially in various legal phrases. ... The doctrine of acts of independent significance, in the common law of wills, permits the testator to effectively change the disposition of her property without changed her will, if acts or events with relation to the property itself have some significance beyond avoiding the requirements of the will. ... An elective share is a term used in American law relating to inheritance, which describes a proportion of an estate which the surviving spouse of the deceased may claim in place of what they were left in the decedents will. ... A pretermitted heir is a term used in the law of property to describe a person who would likely stand to inherit under a will, except that the testator (the person who wrote the will) did not know or did not know of the party at the time the will... A will contest, in the law of property, is a formal objection raised against the validity of a will, based on the contention that the will does not reflect the actual intent of the testator (the party who made the will). ... In the common law tradition, testamentary capacity is the legal term of art used to describe a persons legal and mental ability to make a valid will. ... Undue influence (as a term in jurisprudence) is an equitable doctrine that involves one person taking advantage of a position of power over another person. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Where property is passed to a person but no gift is made, it is held for the owner, this is the Resulting trust; where property should for some reason of public policy or fairness or rule of Equity be held for someone other than the legal owner, this is either... An asset-protection trust is a term which covers a wide spectrum of legal structures. ... A bare trust is one in which the beneficiary has a right to both income and capital and may call for both to be remitted into their own name, they are also entitled to take actual ownership and control of the trust property. ... The Protective Trust is a form of settlement found in England and Wales and several Commonwealth countries. ... A spendthrift trust is a trust that is created for the benefit of a person who is in debt (often because they are unable to control their spending) that gives an independent trustee full authority to make decisions as to how the trust funds may be spent for the benefit... In the U.S., proper ownership of life insurance is important if the insurance proceeds are to escape federal estate taxation. ... A charitable trust (or charity) is a trust organized to serve private or public charitable purposes. ... An honorary trust, under the law of trusts, is a device by which a person establishes a trust for which there is neither a charitable purpose, nor a private beneficiary to enforce the trust. ... A resulting trust is a type of implied trust created through implication of law where the actions of the parties involved and the nature of the transaction implies an intention to create a trust. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Special Needs Trusts are created to ensure that beneficiaries who are developmentally disabled or mentally ill can receive inheritances without losing access to essential government benefits. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... In common law legal systems, a trust is a contractual relationship in which a person or entity (the trustee) has legal title to certain property (the trust property or trust corpus), but is bound by a fiduciary duty to exercise that legal control for the benefit of one or more... A pour-over will is a testamentary device wherein the writer of a will creates a trust, and decrees in the will that the property in his estate at the time of his death shall be placed in the trust. ... The English cy pres doctrine (pronounced as see-pray) is a legal doctrine of the Court of equity. ... A contract is any promise or set of promises made by one party to another for the breach of which the law provides a remedy. ... In the common law, a tort is a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy. ... Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land as distinct from personal or movable possessions) and in personal property, within the common law legal system. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of statutory and common law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses. ... The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (e. ... Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. ... A trial at the Old Bailey in London as drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin for Ackermanns Microcosm of London (1808-11). ... The Court of Chancery, London, early 19th century This article is about concept of equity in Anglo-American jurisprudence. ... A trial at the Old Bailey in London as drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin for Ackermanns Microcosm of London (1808-11). ... A charitable trust (or charity) is a trust organized to serve private or public charitable purposes. ... A testator is a person who has made a legally binding will or testament, which specifies what is to be done with that persons penis family and/or property after death. ...

In the United States, Cy Pres applies only to charitable trusts where the original particular purpose of the trust has become impossible or impractible, and the terms of the trust do not specify what is to happen in such a situation. A typical example would be a trust established to turn public opinion against slavery. Once slavery was abolished, the trusts stated purpose had become impossible to effect. The court will then modify the particular purpose of the trust, leaving it within the same general charitable purpose. In the slavery example, for instance, a court could decide that, while the particular purpose was bringing an end to slavery, the general purpose was to help African Americans, and alter the provisions of the trust to focus on this new goal. A charitable trust (or charity) is a trust organized to serve private or public charitable purposes. ...

Section 412 of the United States Uniform Trust Code provides that "The court may modify the administrative or dispositive terms of a trust or terminate the trust if, because of circumstances not anticipated by the settlor, modification or termination will further the purposes of the trust." This is in essence a cy pres rule for non charitable trusts. Such a power is not found in English law, or in most common law jurisdictions outside the United States.