How to set up a trust in the Turks and Caicos

Before you start: what you decide

Take five questions to your lawyer before a trust in the islands is opened. Nobody needs a final answer on day one, only a leaning on each.

• Who benefits. Name each beneficiary, or describe a class such as your children and their children.
• Which assets. Cash, listed securities, private company shares and property each need their own paperwork.
• Whether a company sits beneath the trust. If so, the trustee holds its shares and day-to-day dealings run through it.
• Whether you want a private trust company. The islands allow one with limits, so ask your lawyer whether it fits.
• Roles and control. The deed can add a protector or an enforcer, and your lawyer explains how much control a settlor can keep.

Note the answers in plain words. We build a brief for the lawyer and the trustee from them, which spares later drafting rounds.

For the sources and the rules behind each feature, open the law page.

Step by step: from enquiry to signed deed

Your lawyer reviews the deed before it is signed, and the trustee accepts office before any asset moves.

The sequence below is our service process, not one laid down by statute. Your lawyer confirms any step that the Ordinance fixes.

1. Enquiry. You tell us where you live, what you plan to transfer and who should benefit.
2. Client acceptance and identity checks. The checks come first because every later step waits on them. You get acceptance or an early no.
3. Structure design. You, your lawyer and we agree a diagram and a list of roles.
4. Drafting. A law firm in the islands drafts the deed, and you review it with your lawyer.
5. Signing. You and the trustee sign the deed, and the trustee confirms in writing that it has accepted office.
6. Funding. Assets move to the trustee or to a company the trust owns.

We can send a quote and the paper list, and you can collect the documents before drafting starts.

A trust company in the Turks and Caicos holds office as trustee, and we coordinate the papers and reporting around it. Our identity checks start first and your start date follows in writing.

Documents the trustee asks for

Requests are much alike from case to case, and collecting the papers early prevents the commonest hold-up.

• A valid passport for each settlor, beneficiary and other controller of the trust.
• Proof of address, such as a recent utility bill or bank statement.
• A short account of where your wealth came from, with supporting papers.
• A description of the assets you plan to transfer, with recent statements.
• Details of each beneficiary, and of the protector if the deed creates one.
• Company records, if a company will sit under the trust.

Certified copies may be asked for, and some papers could need translation. Your lawyer can say which forms the trustee accepts.

One checklist from us, and one set of copies for the lawyer, the trustee and the bank, keep this simple.

Identity and source-of-funds checks

We run the first checks and pass them on; the trustee then runs its own, and its list may differ from ours.

Two ideas matter here. Source of funds is where the money going in comes from today. Source of wealth is the longer story of how you built your overall position.

Evidence for both might be sale contracts, payslips, tax returns, dividend statements or company accounts. The trustee studies them to confirm that the assets are lawful.

A dated list of how you earned or inherited the assets answers most questions in advance.

A refusal is possible. We tell you early if we cannot take a case, and the trustee may decline for its own reasons.

Expect a yearly request for fresh papers, and tell the trustee when your address changes.

After the trust is set up

Following funding, the trustee runs the trust under the deed, keeps the accounts, passes resolutions and records each decision.

Meetings between you, us and the trustee take place at set points, not weekly. A yearly review is a good habit, with another whenever the family or assets change.

Marriage, a birth, a move abroad or the sale of a business each count as a change. Use the review to update your letter of wishes.

The people matter for tax as much as the trust. Your home country decides what you report, so let your tax adviser see the draft deed before you sign.

The cost guide describes the yearly work, the plain answers cover common questions, and the overview shows who does what.