Trust Funds and Mutual Funds: Common Features in Relation to the Assets and Rights of Entitled Persons
Abstract
Trust funds inspired by the Anglo-American trusts were implemented into Czech law by the back door through a mixed legal system in Québec and without linking this new legal institute with the legal regulation of mutual funds, even though precisely Anglo-American trusts are the foundation of mutual funds. Thus, the Czech legal theory rather compares trust funds to foundations or considers them to be quasi-legal persons.
However, based on defining the main features of the Anglo-American trusts, a comparison of the legal position of the beneficiaries of trust funds and unit-holders in mutual funds may lead to interesting conclusions and similarities. The aim of the present paper is to look in more detail at the two parallel and independently existing Czech legal institutes and review the relationship of the entitled persons to the assets as well as the rights of the entitled persons to the performance from the assets.