The original trust behavior originated from the "will entrust orphans" in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. The earliest written record of the trust is the will written by the ancient Egyptians in 2548 BC, in which his wife was appointed as the beneficiary and his son as the guardian.

from the legal point of view, trust originated from the "trust legacy" system in Roman law. The Roman Law stipulates that when dividing property according to the will, the will can be directly given to the successor. If the successor is unable or unable to bear it, the property can be entrusted or transferred to a third party according to the trust bequest system. The "trust legacy" in ancient Rome has formed a relatively complete concept of trust, and it was determined by law for the first time.

from the operational level, modern trust originated from the "Eustace system" in Britain.

In feudal England, people generally believed in religion. According to Christianity at that time, believers "should donate more when they are alive, and then they can go to heaven after they die". This makes the land of the church increase continuously.

According to the laws of England at that time, the land of the church was exempt from service tax. The surge of church land means that the tax revenue of state service is gradually decreasing. This undoubtedly affected the interests of the king and feudal nobles. Thus, in the early 13th century, King Henry III of England promulgated a Confiscation Ordinance, which stipulated that anyone who donated land to a church group should get the permission of the king, and anyone who sold or donated it without authorization should confiscate his land.

At that time, most of the judges in Britain were Christians. In order to help the church get rid of the unfavorable situation, the (Eustace) system was created through the "Equitable Court" and referring to the trust bequest system in Roman Law. The specific content of the Eustace system is: whoever wants to contribute land to the church will not directly transfer it, but first give it to a third party, and indicate that the purpose of giving it is to safeguard the interests of the church, and the third party must transfer the proceeds obtained from the land to the church.

With the complete collapse of feudal system and the establishment of capitalist market economy, the maturity of contractual relationship, the development of commercial credit and monetary credit, and the increasingly sophisticated division of labor, the Eustace system has gradually evolved into a modern trust.

The emergence of corporate trust

The modern trust system was introduced to the United States in the early 19th century. At first, as in Britain, it was also undertaken by individuals to execute wills, manage property and other civil trust businesses. In order to promote capital concentration, profit-oriented financial trust companies came into being. The United States first completed the transfer of personal trust to corporate trust and civil trust to commercial trust.

new york Agricultural Fire Insurance Lending Company, established in 1822 by the United States, was later renamed as Farmers Lending Trust and Investment Company, which was the first trust and investment company in the world. It can be said that the modern trust company originated from insurance, and the company-based trust financial products were first sold to the public through insurance salesmen, and finally separated from the insurance industry.

Trust industry in the United States

The United States is the most developed country in trust industry. Whether it is the scale of trust assets, the richness of trust products or the perfection of supervision system, the trust industry in the United States is in a leading position; America is the most innovative country in the trust industry in the world today. In the American financial system, trust institutions and commercial banks enjoy the same status. From the perspective of asset ownership, trust assets, bank assets and insurance assets in the United States are three points in the world. Classification of types

According to the direction of fund utilization of the trust plan, collective fund trusts can be divided into the following types:

(1) Securities investment trusts, that is, trusts in which the trustee accepts the entrustment of the trustor and invests the trust funds in the securities market according to the agreement of both parties. It can be divided into stock investment trust, bond investment trust and portfolio investment trust.

(2) portfolio investment trust, that is, according to the client's risk preference, financial instruments such as bonds, stocks, funds, loans and industrial investments are operated in a personalized combination ratio, and the trust property is managed to effectively increase its value.

(3) Real estate investment trust, that is, the trustee accepts the entrustment of the client and invests the trust funds in real estate or real estate mortgage loans according to the agreement of both parties. Small and medium-sized investors indirectly obtain the benefits of large-scale real estate investment through real estate investment trusts with small capital investment. Trust is a property management system based on trust.

② the subject of trust property rights is separated from the subject of interests.

③ The trust management mode is flexible and adaptable.

④ Trust property is independent.

⑤ property right is the premise of trust. Principal-agent refers to the legal act that an agent takes place with a third party in the name of the principal within the scope of authorization, and the legal consequences of this act are directly borne by the principal.

The difference from entrustment is shown in the following aspects:

① The number of parties involved is different:

There are many parties to a trust, including at least the trustor, the trustee and the beneficiary. However, only the principal (or the principal) and the agent (or the agent) are the parties to the agency.

② The change of ownership of the property involved is different:

In a trust, the ownership of the trust property is transferred from the trustor to the trustee, who will manage it on his behalf; The ownership of the entrusted property is always in the hands of the principal or the principal, and there is no transfer of ownership.

③ The conditions for establishment are different:

To establish a trust, there must be certain trust property, and the property trust relationship of the trustor cannot be determined without legally owned user trust; The principal-agent relationship is not necessarily based on the existence of property, and the principal-agent relationship can be established without definite property.

④ The degree of control over the property is different:

In trust, the trustee manages the trust property under the framework of laws and regulations and acts according to the trust contract, and is generally not supervised by the trustor and beneficiary; In principal-agent, the trustee (or agent) is subject to the supervision of the principal (or principal).

⑤ Different authorities involved:

The trustee of the trust manages and uses the trust property according to the provisions of the trust contract, and enjoys extensive authority and full freedom, while the trustor does not interfere; In principal-agent, the authority of the trustee (or agent) is narrow, only limited by the authorization of the principal (or principal), and instructions can be given to the trustee (or agent) at any time and must be obeyed.

⑥ The stability of the term is different:

Once the trust behavior is established, the trust contract cannot be dissolved in principle. Even if the trustor or trustee dies, cancels or goes bankrupt, it has no influence on the duration of the trust, and the trust duration is stable; In the principal-agent relationship, the principal (or the principal) can cancel and dissolve the principal-agent relationship at any time, and the contract is easy to dissolve, so the stability of the principal-agent period is poor. Trust and bank credit are both credit methods, but they are different.

1. Different economic relations

Trust is to finance funds and manage property according to the business purpose of "entrusted by people and managing wealth on behalf of others", involving three parties: the principal, the trustee and the beneficiary, and its trust behavior reflects the multilateral credit relationship. Bank credit, as a "credit intermediary", is a bilateral credit relationship between banks, depositors and lenders.

2. Different actors

The principal is the principal of the trust business. In trust behavior, the trustee should carry out business according to the client's intention and serve the beneficiaries. In the whole process, the client takes the initiative, and the trustee passively performs the trust deed, which is restricted by the client's intention. The main body of bank credit is the bank, which independently issues loans and operates, and its behavior is neither restricted by the depositor's will nor forced by the borrower's will.

3. Different risks

Trust generally manages the trust property according to the intention of the trustor, and the operational risks of the trust are generally borne by the trustor or beneficiary. Trust and investment companies only charge handling fees and commissions, and there is no guarantee that the trust principal will not be lost or the minimum income will be obtained. Bank credit is to absorb deposits, issue loans and operate independently according to the deposit interest rate stipulated by the state. Therefore, the bank bears the operational risk of the whole credit fund, and as long as it does not go bankrupt, it must pay the principal and interest on deposits on schedule.

4. Different liquidation methods

When a bank goes bankrupt, deposits and loans participate in the liquidation as bankruptcy liquidation property; When the trust and investment company terminates, the trust property does not belong to liquidation property, and the new trustee will continue to manage it to protect the trust property from losses.