**Corpus** (noun) — The principal assets of a trust or estate, as distinguished from the income those assets generate.
Corpus is the main pot of assets in a trust or estate—the principal rather than what it earns. If a trust holds $1 million in stock, that's the corpus. The dividends the stock pays are income, not corpus.
This distinction matters because trusts often give income to one person (the income beneficiary) while preserving the corpus for someone else (the remainder beneficiary). Understanding what's corpus versus income determines who gets what.
The term comes from Latin meaning "body." It's the body of the trust or estate—the main substance. Lawyers also call it the "principal" or "res," all meaning essentially the same thing.
⏱ When you'll encounter this term
The corpus/income distinction appears constantly in trust administration. Income beneficiaries might receive all income the trust generates while the corpus remains intact for eventual distribution to remainder beneficiaries. This arrangement balances current needs with future inheritances.
What counts as corpus versus income isn't always obvious. Interest and dividends are clearly income. But what about capital gains from selling trust investments? Stock dividends? These characterization questions matter when income and corpus go to different people.
You'll encounter this term in any trust document that splits benefits between income and principal beneficiaries. Trust accountants must track corpus and income separately, following rules about what receipts and expenses are charged against each. Understanding corpus is essential to administering trusts properly and avoiding breaches of fiduciary duty.
**Related terms:** [Trust](/dictionary/trust), [Principal](/dictionary/principal), [Income Beneficiary](/dictionary/income-beneficiary)
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"Mum's trust has a corpus of $500,000 in shares. Dad receives the dividend income for life, but when he dies, the corpus passes intact to us kids."