One of the legal structures available for Irish funds is the unit trust. The principal legislation governing the creation of unit trusts in Ireland is the Unit Trusts Act, 1990. A unit trust operates as an investment fund established under a trust deed made between (i) the management company and the (ii) trustee. The trustee acts as the legal owner of the fund’s assets on behalf of the investors who are each entitled to an undivided beneficial interest in the fund. Similar to shareholders in an investment company the unit holders are entitled to attend and vote at meetings on matters affecting the fund.

The trust deed is the primary legal document which constitutes the trust and it sets out the various rights and obligations of the trustee, the management company and the unit holders. The trust deed will usually delegate the day to day management of the unit trust to the management company who usually delegates these functions to third party service providers.