=3.= The devising of forms of trust and executory accounts offers a wide scope for the application of accounting knowledge. Many intricate problems arise in the interpretation of details of the trust and in the apportionment of sums received, between capital and revenue. Broadly, these accounts are prepared in one of two forms: (a) An account of charge and discharge; (b) in the form of regular ledger accounts. As has been intimated, legal requirements are complied with by the first form, but the second form is preferable. When ledger accounts are kept on the double entry plan, the fullest information can be obtained about the condition of the trust at any time, and from these accounts, the account of charge and discharge or any form required by the court can be made for each period. In preparing the accounts the exact relationship of the trustee to the estate (as the property in trust is called) must be kept in mind. As the owner of the property, he is a creditor of the estate (the business) just as the proprietor of the business is the creditor of that business. On the other hand, as custodian, he is a debtor, being in possession of the property of others. In the ledger, property accounts are opened with the different classes of properties represented in the estate, which accounts are debited for the appraised value of the properties. These are known as _custodian accounts_. A contra account representing the estate—sometimes called the capital—is opened under some such caption as _Personal Estate Account_. This account is credited with the combined values of all properties represented by the custodian accounts. When the assets are entered and posted, the ledger accounts will appear as follows: [Illustration] These asset accounts represent the value of the individual properties, while the personal estate account represents the combined values of all personal property of the estate (No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3). The personal estate is known as the _corpus_, distinguishing it from the real estate. If the trustee, as the custodian, is called upon merely to distribute the estate to the beneficiaries, his accounting is a very simple problem. In many cases, however, he is called upon to take care of the income arising from the corpus or the real estate. When he receives such income in the shape of cash, he debits himself as custodian through a cash account, and credits an income account under an appropriate title—as _interest account_, _rent account_, _dividend account_, etc. The account may represent the income from a specific property, or all income of a stated class. For example, rent account may represent the rents received from all properties, or there may be a separate rent account for each.