Court may remove the settlor if which condition is present?

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In trust practice, courts intervene to terminate or modify a trust when its purpose becomes frustrated and there is no one left to carry it forward. The only time a court would remove the person who created and controls the trust (the settlor) is when the trust’s purpose cannot be achieved and there are no remaining beneficiaries or living means to continue the trust, unless the instrument itself provides another mechanism.

This is the right answer because it ties the court’s authority to a frustrated purpose and the absence of viable participants to enforce the trust. If there is no settlor or beneficiaries to carry out or enforce the trust, and there’s no express provision in the trust instrument addressing the situation, removing the settlor by court becomes a sensible way to wind things up and prevent misuse or waste.

The other options don’t fit because beneficiaries typically don’t have the power to remove the settlor by majority vote, a trustee cannot remove the settlor at will, and saying the court never removes the settlor ignores the limited circumstances where judicial action is appropriate to preserve the trust’s integrity when its purpose cannot be fulfilled.