Setting up a trust in Bermuda: steps and documents

Before you start: what you decide

Begin with four decisions. They shape the deed and the list of papers the trustee will ask you for.

• Whether a professional trustee acts alone or the family sets up its own trustee company, with a purpose trust to hold its shares.
• Who the beneficiaries are, by name or as a described class.
• Which powers you want to keep as settlor, such as a say over investments, since the 1989 Act covers that point.
• Which other roles you want, such as a protector, and who would hold them.

Take the answers to your own lawyer and tax adviser at home before you go further. Whether the structure suits your country is theirs to judge, and it has to be settled before any signature.

A one-page note will do, and each adviser should get the same version.

Step by step: from enquiry to signed deed

These steps run in the same order for every case, and your lawyer reviews the deed before anything is signed.

1. Enquiry. You describe your plan. We reply with what we need and a view on whether we can take the case.
2. Identity checks. The trustee and the bank each run checks. We collect the papers once and share them under a data agreement.
3. Structure design. You and your lawyer settle the trustee model, the roles and any company below the trust.
4. Drafting. A Bermuda law firm drafts the deed, and we prepare your letter of wishes alongside it.
5. Signing. The parties sign, and the trustee confirms in writing that it accepts office.
6. Funding. Assets move to the trustee, or to a company the trust owns.

With a family trustee company in the plan, that company and its purpose trust deed are put in place before the trust deed, so the trustee already exists on signing day.

Signing at a distance, with certified copies, is agreed between counsel and the trustee. Bermuda follows Atlantic time with daylight saving, so a call time that suits both sides is fixed early.

Documents the trustee asks for

Ask the trustee for its list in writing, as the exact items can vary. Most cases need the following:

• A passport or national ID for each settlor, beneficiary and protector.
• Proof of address dated within the last three months.
• Evidence of the source of funds and the source of wealth.
• A schedule of the assets to be transferred.

For a company that goes into the trust, add its certificate of incorporation, constitutional papers, registers and a certificate of compliance. If the family forms its own trustee company, each director also supplies identity papers.

A document in another language may need a certified translation, and the trustee tells you who may certify copies.

Identity and source-of-funds checks

Nothing later can proceed until these checks clear, so they come first. Each person is screened against sanctions and politically exposed person lists.

Expect a question on how the money was made. A family office with several income streams may be asked for one combined statement of those sources.

Give complete answers to follow-up questions the first time, as a partial reply restarts the clock. We run the checks once and share the results.

The receiving bank applies checks of its own, and its document list can differ from the trustee’s. Get that list before you move anything.

After the trust is set up

When the deed is signed and the assets have moved, the trustee takes over the accounts and records and acts on distributions under the deed.

Where the family’s own trustee company runs the trust, its board meets and minutes its decisions. Keep the list of directors and the holder of its shares current.

Hold a review each year, and another when the family or its assets change. The 2025 amendment to the Trustee Act is a good reason to ask your lawyer for a fresh read.

For the yearly work in detail, see the cost page. The legal features cover the rules behind these steps, and the Bermuda overview is a short way back.

Already hold a trust elsewhere? See how we handle administration of an existing trust, or ask for a quote.