How to set up a trust in Luxembourg

Before you start: what you decide

Five choices shape the deed, and you can settle each with your lawyer before any drafting begins. A direction on each is enough on day one.

• Beneficiaries. The deed names them or describes a class, for example your children and their descendants.
• Assets. Cash, listed securities, private-company shares or art held through a company each need different papers.
• Company layer. If a company sits under the trust, the trustee holds its shares and daily dealings run through the company.
• Roles. Beyond the trustee, the deed can create a protector and name who may advise on investments.
• Control. Your lawyer explains how much a settlor can keep before the arrangement weakens.

Write your answers in plain words. We turn them into a short brief for the lawyer and the trustee, which saves drafting rounds.

The rules behind each feature, with sources, are on the law page.

Step by step: from enquiry to signed deed

Nothing is signed until your lawyer has reviewed the deed and the trustee has confirmed it will act. The steps below run in this order, and nothing moves to funding until the trustee has accepted office.

We send a quote and the list of papers, so you can gather them before a start date.

Basis: our service process, 2026-11-05.

The deed is governed by the law it names, which may not be Luxembourg law; recognition of foreign-law trusts rests on the Law of 27 July 2003 on trusts and fiduciary contracts, accessed 2026-11-05 on Legilux.

A law firm drafts the deed under its governing law, and your own lawyer reviews it. We keep both sides working from the same checklist.

The overview of the whole structure shows who does what once the trust is running.

Documents the trustee asks for

The trustee does not accept office until it holds a complete file on you and everyone with a role. Our aim is one collection round, not several.

From the settlor we need:

• A certified passport copy; the trustee says who may certify it.
• Proof of address from the last few months.
• Your tax identification number and the country where you are tax resident.
• A short account of how you built your wealth, with the papers behind it.

Beneficiaries, protectors and company directors give identity papers, an address and the role each holds in the deed.

For assets we ask for statements, share registers or sale contracts, and for property, title papers and valuations.

Papers in French or German may need an English translation. The trust and any company it owns also sign self-certification forms for international tax reporting.

Identity and source-of-funds checks

Evidence for each transfer makes this the slowest stage in most files. No trustee accepts office before it knows who its client is.

For each planned transfer we ask for proof of the money’s origin. Savings are evidenced by payslips and tax returns, a business sale by the sale agreement, and a company you still own by its accounts.

Bigger or more tangled transfers draw more questions under our risk policy. We flag anything that cannot be evidenced to you early, before drafting starts.

The trustee runs its own checks next, and we answer from the file wherever its questions repeat ours.

After the trust is set up

Signing hands the work over to funding and then to running the trust. Assets pass into the trustee’s name or into a company the trust owns, and each transfer is recorded.

Distributions, investments and changes of beneficiary then go through trustee meetings and resolutions. You send requests, we prepare the papers, and the trustee decides under the deed.

The trustee keeps the accounts current each year, and we send you a report. Your lawyer confirms which filings apply to your structure.

To budget for all this, read what shapes the cost of running the structure. The short answers cover points this guide leaves out.