How to set up a trust in the Netherlands

Before you start: what you decide

Settle five points with your lawyer before drafting starts. A rough direction on each is enough at the outset.

• Who benefits. The deed names them or describes them as a class, such as your children and later descendants.
• What goes in. Cash, listed securities, private-company shares or art held through a company each need their own papers.
• Any holding company. If a company sits under the trust, the trustee holds its shares and daily dealings run through the company; your Dutch lawyer may also raise a stichting.
• Who holds which role. The deed can add a protector and say who advises on investments.
• What you keep. Your lawyer explains how much control a settlor can keep without weakening the arrangement.

Put your answers on one page in plain words. We turn it into a brief for the lawyer and the trustee and save drafting rounds.

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

Step by step: from enquiry to signed deed

Signing waits for your lawyer’s review of the deed, and funding waits for the trustee’s acceptance of office.

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

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

The deed follows the law it names, which may not be Dutch law. Recognition of foreign-law trusts rests on the HCCH Trusts Convention (1985); its status table, accessed 2026-11-05, lists the Netherlands as a party.

A law firm drafts the deed under its governing law, and your own lawyer reviews it. Both sides work from one checklist.

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

Documents the trustee asks for

The trustee does not accept office without a complete file on you and everyone with a role. We collect it in a single round where we can.

The settlor sends:

• A passport copy, certified in the way the trustee directs.
• Proof of address issued within recent months.
• Your tax identification number and country of tax residence.
• A brief history of how you built your wealth, with the supporting papers.

Beneficiaries, protectors and company directors provide identity papers, an address and their role in the deed.

For assets the trustee wants statements, share registers or sale contracts; property needs title papers and valuations.

Expect self-certification forms for international tax reporting, one for the trust and one for each company it owns. Documents in Dutch may need a translation into English.

Identity and source-of-funds checks

Each transfer needs evidence, which is why these checks usually take longest. The trustee must know its client before accepting office.

We ask for proof of where each planned sum came from. Payslips and tax returns show savings, a sale agreement shows a business sold, and accounts show a company you still own.

Larger or more complex transfers draw more questions under our risk policy. We flag anything that cannot be evidenced before drafting begins.

The trustee then runs checks of its own. Where its questions overlap with ours, we answer from the file.

After the trust is set up

With the deed signed, the work moves to funding and running the trust. Assets pass to the trustee or to a company the trust owns, and every transfer is recorded.

The trustee then holds meetings and passes resolutions for distributions, investments and changes of beneficiary. You send us requests, we prepare the papers, and the trustee decides under the deed.

Each year the trustee brings the accounts up to date and we send you a report. Your adviser confirms which filings apply to your structure.

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