Definition
The person who creates a trust — that is, the individual or entity who transfers property to a trustee to be held and managed for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries. The trustor establishes the terms of the trust, designates the trustee and beneficiaries, and contributes the initial trust property (the corpus or res).
The trustor may also be referred to as the settlor, grantor, or donor of the trust, depending on jurisdiction and context. These terms are functionally equivalent in most modern usage, though they carry different historical emphases.
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Common Confusion
TRUSTOR, SETTLOR, GRANTOR, and DONOR all describe the same foundational role — the person who creates and funds a trust — but the terms are not uniformly distributed across jurisdictions or document types. SETTLOR dominates in academic and Restatement usage. GRANTOR is standard in tax law and IRS materials (particularly in the context of "grantor trusts" under the Internal Revenue Code). DONOR appears in older English and equity sources and in charitable trust contexts. TRUSTOR appears most frequently in California and other western states, particularly in deed-of-trust instruments and living trust documents. A researcher encountering any of these terms in historical or cross-jurisdictional materials is almost certainly reading about the same legal actor.
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Why It Matters in Research
The primary research challenge with TRUSTOR is its status as a regional and contextual variant rather than the dominant term of art. If your research is confined to California sources — statutes, forms, case law, or living trust instruments — TRUSTOR is common and reliable as a search term. Outside California and the western states, the same role is overwhelmingly described as SETTLOR or GRANTOR, and searching only for "trustor" will produce thin results.
In tax materials, the operative term is almost always GRANTOR. The IRS grantor trust rules (Subchapter J of the Internal Revenue Code) use "grantor" exclusively. Historical equity treatises and English chancery sources use DONOR or SETTLOR. Modern Restatement (Third) of Trusts uses SETTLOR throughout. Researchers using historical digests or equity encyclopedias who search for "trustor" will likely find nothing, even when abundant material on the settlor role exists.
A secondary trap: in deed-of-trust instruments — the security device used in place of a mortgage in many states — the "trustor" is the borrower who conveys property to a trustee as security for a loan. This is a distinct use of the term, rooted in real property and secured transactions rather than trust law proper. A document that names a "trustor" may be a living trust instrument or a deed of trust, and the legal context differs substantially. Do not assume all uses of "trustor" refer to the trust-creation role without confirming the instrument type.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's Law Dictionary editions sampled carry nearly identical entries: "A word occasionally, though rarely, used as a designation of the creator, donor, or founder of a trust." The editors' hedge — "occasionally, though rarely" — reflects the term's marginal status in the national legal vocabulary at the time of those editions. Black's preference for SETTLOR and GRANTOR as primary terms is consistent across its editions.
The historical dictionary record is thin by design: TRUSTOR was never the preferred term in the equity tradition from which trust law developed. English chancery courts and the treatise writers who systematized trust law (Story, Lewin, Perry) used SETTLOR and DONOR. Black's acknowledgment of TRUSTOR reads more as a disambiguation note than a substantive entry. Researchers should treat the historical dictionary support as confirming that the term existed and was understood, not that it was standard usage.
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Jurisdictional Note
TRUSTOR is the preferred statutory and documentary term in California and appears regularly in other western states. Elsewhere, SETTLOR dominates in common law trust instruments and academic treatment, while GRANTOR controls in tax and federal law contexts. The functional meaning is identical across all jurisdictions; only the preferred label varies.
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