Trusts and foundations

How they are used

A trust is not a legal person. The settlor transfers assets to a trustee, who holds them for the beneficiaries on the terms of the trust deed. A foundation is a legal person with no shareholders: its assets belong to it and are held for its purpose and its beneficiaries, under a deed and by-laws, by a council that runs it.

In an international structure either one usually sits at the top and holds the shares of a holding company. The family’s companies and investments then stay with one owner as generations change, instead of being divided among heirs. Families from civil-law countries often prefer a foundation because it is a legal person. Both forms are also used for philanthropy and for employee-benefit schemes.

Who the beneficial owners are

There is no percentage test. Under the EU AML Regulation, which applies from 10 July 2027, the beneficial owners of an express trust are all of its settlors, trustees and protectors; its beneficiaries — or the class of beneficiaries, and in a discretionary trust the objects of a power and the default takers; and anyone else who exercises ultimate control, directly or through a chain of control or ownership. For a foundation they are the founders, the members of its management body in their management and supervisory roles, its beneficiaries and anyone else who controls it. Where a company holds one of these positions, the people who own or control that company are beneficial owners too.

A protector who owns nothing, and a beneficiary who may never receive a distribution, are therefore beneficial owners by role — of the trust or foundation and of every company it owns or controls. In the chart above the trust holds all of the holding company. None of the four people holds a share, yet the settlor, the protector and both children are beneficial owners of it. The trustee is a company, so the people who own and control it are identified as well.

National rules already follow this pattern, which the FATF strengthened when it revised its standard for trusts in February 2023; its guidance followed in March 2024. Liechtenstein lists founders and settlors, council members and trustees, protectors, and beneficiaries named or as a class. The British Virgin Islands count beneficiaries with a vested interest, and where a BVI-licensed trust company acts as trustee, only the trustee’s name is entered in the company’s filing.

Where they are registered

Cyprus, Malta and Liechtenstein each keep a register for trusts or foundations, and none is open to the general public:

• Cyprus. CySEC keeps the register of express trusts. A Cyprus-resident trustee registers every express trust it administers, Cyprus International Trusts included, within 15 days of its appointment and of any change. A trustee from outside the EU registers when, for a trust, it enters a business relationship in Cyprus or buys Cyprus property. General public access was withdrawn in 2026.
• Malta. The MFSA keeps the trust register. Trustees declare the beneficial owners within 14 days of appointment, report changes within 14 days and confirm the entry by 31 January each year. Foundations are registered, with their beneficial owners, by the Registrar for Legal Persons at the Malta Business Registry.
• Liechtenstein. The register of beneficial owners at the Office of Justice covers foundations and trusts. A private-benefit foundation may be deposited with the Office of Justice rather than entered in the commercial register, so it appears in no public record, but its beneficial owners are filed within 30 days. In July 2026 attackers copied beneficial-owner data on about 31,000 entities from this register, and online access was suspended as a precaution.

Authorities see these registers in full. Banks and other obliged entities see what they need for due diligence. Anyone else must show a legitimate interest, which the MFSA, for example, generally verifies within 12 working days; in May 2025 the EFTA Court confirmed for Liechtenstein that any person who can show such an interest may have access.

Outside Europe the picture varies. The United Kingdom’s Trust Registration Service, run by HMRC, covers UK express trusts and some non-UK trusts — those with UK tax to pay, UK land acquired on or after 6 October 2020, or a UK-resident trustee entering a business relationship with a UK firm — and since June 2026 non-UK trusts holding UK land bought before that date must register by 1 September 2027. The British Virgin Islands keep no central trust register: a trust appears through the companies it holds. Seychelles enters trusts in a register kept by its Financial Services Authority. In Panama only trustees licensed by the banking superintendency may carry on trust business, and they keep the beneficial-ownership information; private interest foundations are in the Public Registry and in the private beneficial-ownership system.

From 10 July 2027 the EU Regulation reaches further. A non-EU trust or entity with an EU link — a business relationship with an EU bank or other obliged entity in higher-risk cases, EU real estate, certain high-value goods, or an EU public contract — must register its beneficial owners in an EU central register.

Protectors and private trust companies

A protector is an optional office, created by the deed, that oversees the trustee or the council. Whoever holds it is a beneficial owner by role, and banks identify the protector as they identify the settlor.

A private trust company (PTC) is a company that acts as trustee for one family’s trusts rather than offering trustee services to the public. In the British Virgin Islands a PTC is a BVI business company, and since 2013 it may be the sole trustee of a VISTA trust — the BVI form built to hold the shares of a BVI company while the company’s own board manages it. Because the trustee is then a company, the people who own and control the PTC are beneficial owners of the trust, and a bank asks for its board and its owners.

What a bank asks for

For a trust: the trust deed, or the extracts that matter, and sometimes the letter of wishes; the trustee’s licence or regulator; the identity of the settlor, the protector and each beneficiary, or a description of the class; confirmation of registration; the source of the wealth that was settled; and the history of distributions. For a foundation: the deed and by-laws, the register or deposit confirmation, an extract from the register of beneficial owners, the identity of the founder, council members, protector and beneficiaries, a summary of any letter of wishes, and the source of the founder’s wealth.

The documents must match how the arrangement works. A trustee must genuinely control the assets — a trust its settlor still runs invites challenge — and how a foundation is taxed in the founder’s and beneficiaries’ home countries depends on how much control the founder keeps in practice. Where a settlor or beneficiary is a Russian national or resident, EU restrictive measures limit the trust services that EU persons and firms may provide; the guide on restrictive measures sets out the rules.