Services · Trusts & private foundations

Setting up a trust in Gibraltar

English trust law, a licensed trustee, and a written quote before any work begins.

What a Gibraltar trust is and who it suits

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory with a legal system built on English common law. Trusts are governed by the Trustee Act, by the Trusts (Private International Law) Act 2015 and by the 1990 amendments to the Bankruptcy Act, which introduced a separate asset protection trust regime. The mechanics are the familiar English ones: a settlor transfers assets to a trustee, who holds them for the beneficiaries on the terms of a trust deed and a letter of wishes.

A family trust in Gibraltar is normally set up for one of four reasons:

• succession planning - assets pass under the deed instead of going through probate in several countries and colliding with forced heirship rules;
• protection against future claims - this is what the registered asset protection trust is for;
• consolidated ownership - holding company shares, real estate, securities portfolios and intellectual property gathered in one place;
• controlling when the next generation gets access to capital, which matters most when beneficiaries are young.

Who a Gibraltar trust does not suit, stated plainly. It will not help if creditor claims or litigation already exist: a transfer made in those circumstances can be unwound, and Gibraltar law says so expressly. It does not suit anyone unwilling to genuinely give up control - if the settlor keeps treating the assets as his own, courts and tax authorities where he lives are likely to look straight through the structure. And it does not suit small asset pools: a licensed professional trustee is paid every year, and at modest values that cost eats the benefit. For a single asset, a company or a Gibraltar private foundation is often cheaper and more honest.

Requirements: trustee, documents, registration, compliance

There is no minimum capital requirement for a Gibraltar trust: it is established with a nominal sum and the real assets follow. The requirements that matter are about who administers the structure and how it is documented.

• Trustee. Anyone providing trustee services by way of business must be licensed by the Gibraltar regulator, the GFSC, and remains under its supervision, which covers the trustee company's capitalisation, staff competence and professional indemnity cover. An individual can technically act as trustee, but for a structure banks and counterparties will accept we work only with licensed trustees.
• Trust deed. The core document: beneficiaries, the trustee's powers and limits, distribution mechanics, duration, governing law and how terms can be varied. A separate letter of wishes is prepared - not legally binding on the trustee, but decisive in practice.
• Duration. Both the perpetuity period and the accumulation period in Gibraltar run up to 100 years.
• Protector. Optional, and usually given a veto over key decisions plus the power to replace the trustee. It is the sensible balance between influence and a structure that looks like a sham.
• Compliance. Full KYC on settlor, beneficiaries and protector: passports, proof of address and, above all, documented source of funds and source of wealth. Business sale agreements, tax returns, bank statements, company accounts. This is the heaviest part of the file.
• Registration. An ordinary trust is not publicly registered. Beneficial ownership data goes into a closed register under anti-money-laundering rules and is available to the competent authorities, not to the public. An asset protection trust is different: to obtain protection under the Bankruptcy Act amendments, the disposition is registered with the Registrar of Dispositions, and the settlor completes an approved enquiry form about his finances and swears an affidavit of solvency.
• Office and substance. The trust itself has no office or staff - the licensed Gibraltar trustee provides the presence. Substance requirements arise one level down, at the companies the trust owns.

The process step by step

1. Scoping and structure design - 3 to 5 working days. We review the assets, the citizenship and tax residence of settlor and beneficiaries, and any live disputes or debts. This is also where we say so if Gibraltar does not solve your problem.
2. Trustee selection and preliminary review - 1 to 2 weeks. The trustee runs its own compliance and confirms it will take the file. A refusal here costs far less than a refusal later.
3. Documents and source of funds - 1 to 3 weeks. The longest stage when wealth accumulated over decades and the paperwork is scattered across years and countries.
4. Negotiating the trust deed - 1 to 3 weeks. Beneficiaries, trustee powers, distributions, protector, variation mechanics, governing law.
5. Execution - 1 to 3 days. The deed is signed and the initial property, usually a nominal amount, is settled.
6. Asset protection trust registration, where required. Settlor enquiry form, affidavit of solvency, filing with the Registrar of Dispositions; the registration fee is payable to the government.
7. Transferring the main assets - from 3 to 4 weeks. Company shares, accounts, real estate: each asset class has its own procedure. Opening a bank account for the trust is usually the slowest part.
8. Ongoing administration - annually. Trust accounting, properly minuted trustee decisions, distributions, KYC refresh, responses to bank and regulator queries.

A realistic timeline from start to an established trust is 4 to 8 weeks. Nobody guarantees bank account timelines, us included: that decision belongs to the bank.

What it costs

Prices are indicative and cover our work on a typical case. We confirm the exact quote in writing after a short call - you know the final number before we start. Government fees and bank tariffs are billed separately unless explicitly included.

What moves the number most: how many assets and of what type, how many beneficiaries and jurisdictions are involved, whether an asset protection trust registration is needed, whether an operating business sits under the trust, and how hard the source of funds is to evidence. Settling a securities portfolio and settling a group of companies with real estate in three countries are not the same job, and we do not pretend they cost the same.

Tax and reporting

Gibraltar does not tax trust income where the trust was created by or on behalf of a non-resident, no beneficiary is resident in Gibraltar and the income does not arise in Gibraltar - a rule that goes back to the 1983 amendments to the income tax legislation. Where tax does arise, trusts and foundations are charged at 15%, which has been Gibraltar's standard corporate rate since 1 July 2024. There is no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax and no VAT in Gibraltar.

The point people miss: no tax in Gibraltar does not mean no tax for you. The consequences arise where the settlor and the beneficiaries live.

• Many countries attribute the income of a foreign trust to the settlor or the controlling person. Anti-avoidance rules on foreign structures without legal personality, controlled foreign company regimes and grantor trust rules all work this way.
• Gibraltar participates in the automatic exchange of financial information under CRS: data on trust accounts, controlling persons and beneficiaries is reported to their countries of tax residence.
• Distributions to beneficiaries almost always trigger tax in the beneficiary's country, even where the trust itself pays nothing.

So we look at the trust alongside the family's actual tax position rather than in isolation. The trust versus foundation choice is covered in our article on the Gibraltar trust and private foundation.

Risks and the usual reasons applications fail

• Transferring assets while debts or disputes exist. Registering an asset protection trust requires an affidavit of solvency: if the settlor is in fact insolvent at the time of the transfer, the protection does not hold and the sworn affidavit becomes a problem of its own.
• A sham trust. If the settlor keeps everything - swaps trustees at will, dictates every decision, uses the assets exactly as before - a court or tax authority can treat the structure as a sham. Influence belongs in the protector role and the letter of wishes, not in day-to-day control exercised around the trustee.
• Source of funds that cannot be evidenced. The most common reason a file is declined: the assets exist, but the documents explaining where they came from do not, or cannot be reconstructed.
• Country and sanctions exposure. Some trustees and banks decline certain profiles outright; the rest apply enhanced scrutiny. This surfaces at the preliminary stage, and we do not push a client further when the answer is no.
• Jurisdictional reputation. Gibraltar was on the FATF grey list from June 2022 and was removed in February 2024, and was later taken off the EU list of high-risk third countries. The issue is formally closed, but banks remember the history and sometimes ask extra questions.
• Expecting anonymity. Full opacity is not on offer: the trustee holds beneficiary data, it goes into a closed register, and it is reported under CRS. A trust protects against publicity and messy succession, not against tax authorities.
• Family plans that change. A beneficiary moving country can rewrite the whole tax picture. Build the structure with those scenarios in mind from the start.

We do not give guarantees on outcomes: trustees, banks and the regulator make those decisions. What we are accountable for is the quality of preparation and for telling you the constraints up front.

How we work

We start with a short scoping call. If Gibraltar is not the best answer we say so and propose the alternative - that is cheaper for everyone. Then a written fixed quote, selection of a licensed trustee suited to your profile, document collection and clean-up, negotiation of the trust deed, and support through to the transfer of assets. After establishment we stay involved: variations, trustee liaison, beneficiary questions, bank queries.

Related: trusts and private foundations, Jersey trust, Cyprus trust, overview of trust jurisdictions, company registration in Gibraltar. The full list is in services, and the comparison with the Channel Islands is in our article on Jersey and Guernsey trusts and foundations.

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