In 1993 the BVI introduced legislation which was intended to deal with various issues which were expressly excluded from the Hague Trusts Convention, article 4 of which stated that the Convention “does not apply to preliminary issues relating to the validity of wills or other acts by virtue of which assets are transferred to a trustee”.
Section 83 of the Trustee Act (which also included the Territory’s anti-forced heirship provisions which are referred to below, and which was based on wording contained in a Jersey statute) was designed to plug this gap in the Convention by providing that “if a person transfers or disposes of personal property to a trustee of a trust he shall be deemed to have capacity to do so if he is at the time of such transfer or disposition of full age and sound mind under the law of his domicile”.
