(b) That's wrong. It is common to refer to 'trust property' but a trust cannot itself own property because it does not have a separate legal persona with the capacity to own property. So who owns the property vested in a trust?

The best answer is that, in Australian law, the ownership rights to property vested in a trust are split between the trustee and the beneficiaries. This needs some careful explanation.

When a settlor vests specified assets in a trustee to create a trust, the trustee becomes the legal owner of those assets, with the necessary powers as owner to deal with them. If the trust is created to run a business (a trading trust) then the trustee has the necessary legal powers to use the trust assets to run the business.

However, when a trust is created, the law draws a distinction between the legal ownership of the assets, and what is called the 'beneficial ownership' of the assets. The concept of 'beneficial ownership' is that it is separate from the legal ownership, and it consists of the right to the benefits of owning the assets in question: that is, the right to receive any income or profits generated by those assets, and the right to the full ownership of the assets when the trust is wound up. In summary, a trustee has the legal ownership of the trust assets, and the beneficiaries have the beneficial ownership of those same assets.