confidentiality in relation to trust administration. These benefits have encouraged many high-net-worth families to establish trusts in the Channel Islands. Another drawcard of the Channel Islands is that it has a reputation as a credible trusts jurisdiction as a result of the courts of Guernsey and Jersey hearing and deciding on numerous trusts issues facing trusts practitioners throughout the world. The establishment of a trust structure in the Channel Islands is therefore generally thought of as a sound investment decision and those looking to do so expect a high degree of certainty in terms of the court’s approach to the law and disputes should they emerge. However recent litigation before the Guernsey Royal Court in Investec Trust (Guernsey) Limited & Anor v Glenalla Properties Limited & Ors sounds a note of caution to those looking to protect their assets within a Channel Islands trust. It may be that a trustee, or even former trustee, can take trust assets to satisfy their legal costs, or even remuneration, without regard to the value of the trust fund and at any time, including long after their removal as trustee. The trust at the centre of a current dispute on this particular issue is a Jersey law trust known as the TDT. Over 10 years after their removal in July 2010, the former trustees, ITG Limited and Bayeux Limited (which are subsidiaries of Investec Bank), have made a claim of around £28 million against the assets of the trust chiefly comprising litigation costs incurred over a 12-year period. The claim is challenged by the current trustees. Following an eight-day hearing in December 2020 (which caused further hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees to be incurred), the Guernsey Royal Court will rule on the extent to which the current trustees’ challenges will be allowed or struck out. The case presents the Royal Court with an opportunity to provide much-needed clarification for beneficiaries and the trust industry on the extent to which courts will go to protect the trust fund from exhaustion as a result of claims by trustees for their costs. The current authority on point is the Jersey Court of Appeal’s decision in Alhamrani v JP Morgan Trust Company. Alhamrani allows a trustee (and former trustee) to take their costs from trust assets unless they can be shown to be “unreasonably incurred”. But in practice what an “unreasonably incurred” cost will be