Cy pres is a legal doctrine that means "as near as possible.”
When a person creates a charitable trust, the express charitable purpose of the trust may become impossible to fulfill. Rather than terminating the trust, the courts may alter the purpose of the charitable trust in order to allow it to continue, while keeping it as closely to the original intention of the settlor as possible.
[Last updated in August of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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