How to set up a trust in Labuan

Before you start: what you decide

Five decisions come before any drafting, and only you can make them. A rough answer is enough for the first call:

• Purpose. Keeping a family company together, preparing succession, providing for children, holding a family office vehicle, or a mix.
• Assets. Cash, listed securities, shares in private companies, property or insurance policies, and where each one sits.
• Beneficiaries. A named list, a class such as “my descendants”, or both.
• Control. Whether you want to keep powers over investments, appoint a protector, or add a family member as a further trustee.
• Duration. Whether the trust should run without an end date or stop at a set time.

None of these choices is final at this stage. They give the trust company and the lawyer enough to propose a structure, and they show early which assets need advice in another country.

On control, the Act lets a settlor keep powers such as revoking the trust or directing the trustees (section 8B).

On duration, a trust runs for an unlimited period unless its terms fix one (section 16). Your lawyer turns both into deed wording.

The overview of a trust in Labuan explains the structure options.

Step by step: from enquiry to signed deed

The sequence is fixed and the same for most families. Only the duration of each step differs, and that is set by paperwork and by third parties.

1. Enquiry. Tell us about the family, the assets and the goal. In return you get our questions and a list of documents to collect.
2. Identity checks. We verify who you are and where the wealth came from. The local trust company reviews the file before it accepts you.
3. Structure design. We, the local trust company, the law firm and your tax adviser agree what the trust holds, who benefits and who has which powers.
4. Drafting. The law firm drafts the deed and helps with your letter of wishes. You review both with your own lawyer.
5. Signing. The deed is signed and the trustees take up office. The law firm confirms how the signing is to be done.
6. Funding. After the bank opens the trust account, every asset is retitled in the names of the trustees.

The Act says one of the trustees must be a trust company based in Labuan (section 7). In our service that company is named in your documents before you sign, and we coordinate the case around it.

The deed can name further trustees beside it, such as a family member or a professional. Each one goes through the same identity checks.

The Act also says a trust may be registered with the Authority (section 12). Whether to register is a point for your lawyer and the Labuan trust company, and it is settled before the deed is signed.

Start collecting papers soon, because identity checks usually decide the pace. Expect a repeat of some questions when the bank screens each asset on its own.

Each step and the party that charges for it appear in the cost guide.

Documents the trustee asks for

What you hand over falls into three kinds: identity documents, proof of where the money and wealth came from, and the facts the deed is built on.

Basis: the checklist we use when onboarding, dated 2026-11-05.

Papers in another language generally come with a certified translation into English. When a record is old or hard to get, raise it early; the same fact can often be shown another way.

Identity and source-of-funds checks

The checks open the process, as every later step depends on them. The settlor, the protector and every other person with control are identified and verified.

On top of identity, the trustee has to see how the funds arose and how the wider wealth was built.

Without a meeting in person, at least one more step is taken to confirm who you are.

It could be further identity documents, supplementary checks on the information given, or a first payment coming from an account in your own name.

The local trust company decides which steps fit your case and keeps a record of them.

Beneficiaries named only by class are identified later: the trustee collects what it needs when a distribution is made to them.

Anyone linked to the trust who holds or once held a senior public role brings enhanced checks, and a senior manager must approve the relationship first.

After the trust is set up

Routine administration begins once the assets are in. The trustees meet for decisions, keep minutes and accounts, and repeat identity checks on a timetable set by risk.

Each controlling person, from the settlor and protector to the beneficiaries, gives the trustee a tax residence self-certification.

Classification decides whether a given trust reports and what it reports; your adviser confirms it at set-up.

Your letter of wishes may be revised at any time, while the deed itself fixes how beneficiaries come in or go out.

The legal features of a Labuan trust show which powers the law lets you retain, and the frequently asked questions take up the rest. Other places are listed in the jurisdictions hub.

When you have a rough picture of the purpose and the assets, ask us for a quote and we come back with the next questions.