Trust fund Singapore: how it works and who it suits

What a Singapore trust is

A trust is a legal relationship set out in a deed, not a company. You, the settlor, transfer assets to a trustee. The trustee becomes the legal owner, but holds and manages the assets under the deed, for the beneficiaries.

Singapore’s trust law rests on the common law, with statute on top.

The Trustees Act 1967 sets the trustee’s statutory duty of care, its investment powers and its general powers (source: Singapore Statutes Online, Trustees Act 1967).

For how long a trust may last, the Civil Law Act 1909 sets a perpetuity period of 100 years, or a shorter period if the instrument says so (source: Singapore Statutes Online, Civil Law Act 1909, section 32).

Each feature and its source is set out on the law and features page.

Most families choose a discretionary trust. The trustee decides who receives what and when, guided by a letter of wishes that you write and can update. The letter is not binding, so the trustee can respond when circumstances change.

A trust is not a way to hide assets or to put them beyond the reach of every rule. Banks, tax authorities and the trustee itself need to know who stands behind the trust.

What a trust does offer is continuity. A professional trustee follows the deed after the settlor steps back, falls ill or dies.

A trust can sit beside a will. A will takes effect on death and passes through the estate, while assets already in the trust follow the deed.

Many families use both: the trust for the business and the investments, the will for everything else.

Advisers in each country say how far the trust holds up there, because the answer turns on local law.

Who uses a Singapore trust

This structure suits business owners and founders in Southeast Asia, India and mainland China, often with companies or assets in more than one country.

Typical aims are to pass on a company, to keep shares together across generations, or to organise a single family office with a trust above it.

A family trust is the core option: one deed, a named class of beneficiaries and a trustee who answers to the deed. The other options build on it.

• Discretionary family trust. The trustee decides distributions within the class of beneficiaries, guided by your letter of wishes.
• Reserved powers trust. The settlor keeps certain powers, such as directing investments. How far that works depends on the deed’s wording.
• Private trust company (PTC). The family sets up its own company to act as trustee. A trust company supports the compliance side.
• Holding company trust. The trust holds a company that owns the family business or the family’s investments.

If a business holding is involved, tell us early which assets are in it. Shares in an operating company raise different questions from a portfolio of listed securities.

For estate planning in Singapore, families often ask about two timings. A Singapore living trust starts during the settlor’s life and can hold assets at once.

A testamentary trust in Singapore is different: it is created by a will and takes effect only on death. Many families use a living trust for the family business and a will for the rest.

Your own lawyer designs the set of documents. The trustee then works from the deed and any will that points assets to it.

A single family office runs the family’s investments through a company or a small team. A trust can hold the shares of that company, so ownership stays with the family across generations.

Whether such a structure suits you, and how it is taxed, is a question for your advisers. We do not assess it.

Existing trusts are welcome too. If your trust sits with another trustee, we can coordinate the papers and reporting with that trustee, or arrange a move to a Singapore trustee by a deed of retirement and appointment once your lawyer confirms the steps.

If a trust already exists, our trust administration service shows what administration covers once we are appointed. For a family office, see family office structuring.

Documents and timeline

The trustee asks for identity documents, evidence of where your money and wealth came from, and the details that go into the trust documents.

Basis: our onboarding checklist, dated 2026-11-05.

A Singapore law firm drafts the deed, with your letter of wishes alongside it. You review the draft with your own lawyer.

The bank that opens the trust account runs its own checks. A company registry may be involved if shares move into the trust.

After signing, the work becomes routine. The trustee keeps the records, holds meetings when decisions are needed and prepares the accounts.

We send you the asset report and the minutes, and you can update your letter of wishes at any time.

Timing depends on how complete your documents are and on third parties: the law firm, the bank and any registry. We give you a checklist and show where each step stands.

The step-by-step set-up guide walks through every stage, and the cost guide explains what you pay for at each one.

Singapore compared with Hong Kong

The clearest difference is who acts as trustee. In Singapore a partner trust company holds that role and we coordinate your case. In Hong Kong we act as trustee ourselves, so one team does both.

Both places give you a common law trust, a modern trustee statute and a deed you can shape. The choice usually turns on three things:

1. Where your family and assets are. A trustee close to the business and the bank is easier to work with.
2. Which place your advisers know best. Their familiarity with the law shortens drafting and review.
3. How many hands touch your file. One trustee and one team means fewer hand-offs than a partner model.

Tax and legal comparisons between the two belong with your advisers, because the outcome turns on your residence and your assets, not on the place alone.

Read the Hong Kong trust guide for that service, and use the side-by-side comparison tool to put Singapore beside it or beside another place.

What the trustee does

The trustee must follow the deed, act in the interests of the beneficiaries and keep proper records. The Trustees Act 1967 also sets a statutory duty of care for trustees (source: Singapore Statutes Online, Trustees Act 1967, Part 1A).

Carrying on trust business in Singapore is restricted, with a list of exempt persons (source: Singapore Statutes Online, Trust Companies Act 2005, sections 3 and 15).

In our Singapore service a partner trust company takes the trustee role; your engagement letter sets out its role. It is named in your documents before you sign.

Distributions follow the deed. The trustee weighs a request against the deed and the letter of wishes, and records its reasoning in minutes.

It checks who will receive the money, then pays from the trust account. Unusual requests take longer, because the trustee asks for supporting papers.

In practice the trustee’s work looks like this:

• holding title to the assets and keeping them separate from its own;
• trustee meetings with minutes for each distribution or major decision;
• accounts and an asset report that we send you;
• a periodic refresh of identity checks on the people connected to the trust;
• collecting the self-certification forms used for tax information exchange.

Reporting is part of the job. Singapore has exchanged financial account information under the Common Reporting Standard since September 2018 (source: Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, CRS overview and latest developments).

What stays with you is the choice of beneficiaries, the letter of wishes, and either the decision on how assets are invested or the appointment of a professional manager.

We coordinate onboarding, documents and reporting with the partner trustee. Legal and tax questions go to your own advisers.

You can also browse every place we cover, or read the answers to common questions first.

When you are ready, request a quote for Singapore. It is an estimate based on what you tell us, not a binding offer, and we confirm it once we have seen the structure and the assets.