Is a Trust the right choice for my offshore company structure?

General Information about Offshore Trusts in Cyprus:


The various types of trust vary in complexity but they have one common fundamental feature. A “person” being either an individual or a company (“the trustee”) agrees to hold certain assets (“the trust fund”) in its name for the benefit of another person (“the beneficiary”) on certain terms and with certain powers (which are usually set out in the Trust Deed). The assets comprising the trust fund are legally held and registered as owned by the trustee and the trustee is under a duty, enforceable in the Courts, to hold those assets and the income arising from them for the benefit of the beneficiary(ies).


The above relationship can be summarised as follows: The trustee has legal title to the trust assets and the beneficiary has beneficial or equitable title (it is the beneficial title which is of value when one is considering asset ownership).


The other important parties of the trust are:


The settlor. This is the person that creates the trust. In some jurisdictions the settlor could not act as trustee or be a beneficiary. In the Cyprus jurisdiction, the settlor can also be a trustee or beneficiary.


The protector. This is the person(s) that has the power to restrict key powers (such as add beneficiaries, etc.) of the trustee so that they can only be exercised with the consent of suitable person.

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