How to set up a trust in Vanuatu

Before you start: what you decide

Before you ask for a trust in Vanuatu, settle five points with your lawyer. You need a direction on each, not a final answer on day one.

• Who benefits. The deed names the beneficiaries or describes them as a class, such as your children and their children.
• What goes in. Cash, listed shares, a private company and property each need different paperwork and a different talk with the bank.
• Whether a company sits under the trust. The trustee holds the shares, and day-to-day dealings run through the company.
• Who holds which role. Beyond the trustee, your lawyer may suggest a protector or an investment adviser. Your lawyer confirms whether local law allows each role.
• How your bank sees the place. Vanuatu remains on Annex I of the EU list (source: KPMG, ETF 585), so ask your bank early whether it deals with structures there.

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

The law page sets out the sourced facts on the legal side and what to put to your lawyer.

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. Nothing moves to funding until the trustee has accepted office and your bank has agreed to the structure.

1. Enquiry. You describe the family, the assets and the aim.
2. Acceptance and checks. Identity and source-of-funds review, first ours, then the trustee’s.
3. Design. A diagram, a list of roles and a written bank view.
4. Drafting. The deed and your letter of wishes.
5. Signing. You and the trustee sign, and the trustee accepts office.
6. Funding. Assets move to the trustee or a company the trust owns.

Basis: our service process, 2026-11-05. A trust company in Vanuatu holds office as trustee, and we coordinate the papers and reporting around it.

Whether the trust must also be entered on any register in Vanuatu is a point your lawyer confirms for your case.

We can send a quote and the list of papers, so you can gather them before drafting starts. The costs page shows what the quote covers.

Documents the trustee asks for

The trustee does not accept office until it holds a complete file on you and on everyone with a role. We aim to collect it once, so you are not asked twice.

The settlor sends:

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

For beneficiaries, protectors and company directors, the trustee asks for identity papers, an address and the role each person holds in the deed. For a child, a birth certificate and the guardian’s details replace some of these.

For the assets, the trustee wants statements, share registers or sale contracts. They show what is being transferred and that it is yours to transfer.

Add one paper that is easy to forget: a short note from your own lawyer saying what the structure is for. It helps the trustee and the bank understand the plan before they ask.

Identity and source-of-funds checks

These checks are usually the slowest part, because each transfer needs evidence. A trustee wants to know its client before it accepts office.

We review each transfer you plan and ask where the money came from. Payslips and tax returns cover savings. A sale agreement covers a business you sold, and accounts cover a company you still own.

Expect more questions here than in a place with no reputation issue. A trustee or bank that sees a listed place on the file may ask for more evidence, not less, and may take longer to answer.

Treat that as normal, not as a sign that something is wrong.

If something cannot be evidenced, we say so early rather than after drafting has started.

The bank step in a place on the EU list

Banks form their own view of a place, and the October 2026 update leaves Vanuatu on Annex I under criterion 2.2 (source: KPMG, ETF 585). Being on Annex I can trigger defensive tax measures in EU member states (same source).

The same summary notes a Global Forum review in April 2026 that rated Vanuatu largely compliant. Both facts are public, and a bank may weigh them differently from how we do.

So we ask you to do three things before drafting starts:

• Tell your bank, in writing, that a trust in Vanuatu is under study, and who the trustee is.
• Ask what papers it needs and whether it opens or keeps accounts for the structure.
• Keep its reply, and send a copy to your lawyer.

If the answer is no, the structure may need another design or another place. The comparison tool puts Vanuatu beside other places, and it is better to learn this before the deed is signed than after.

After the trust is set up

Once the deed is signed and the trustee has accepted office, the work turns to funding and running the trust. Each transfer is recorded, and the trustee holds the assets in its own name or through a company the trust owns.

From then on the trustee holds meetings and passes resolutions for distributions and changes. You send us your requests, we prepare the papers, and the trustee decides under the deed.

Read the overview of the whole structure for who does what once it runs. Short answers to points not covered here are in the plain answers to common questions.

Request a quote for Vanuatu and we reply with the next questions.