A bare trust can be used for the acquisition of a “single acquirable asset” meaning it can generally only be used to purchase one piece of property. It may however be possible to acquire multiple property titles providing it is reasonable to conclude that what is being acquired is distinctly identifiable as a single asset.
A bare trust may also be used to acquire a ‘collection of assets’ so long as the assets in the collection are identical and have the same market value (e.g. shares).
A bare trust can also be used to acquire a ‘replacement asset’ to replace an original asset in certain circumstances with the most common being where shares in a company, or units in a unit trust, are being replaced by shares or units as a result of a takeover, merger, demerger or restructure.
