Singapore is a common law trust jurisdiction. The articles collected here explain the trust as an answer to custody risk, express trusts and the three certainties, the Quistclose trust, the Trustees Act 1967, the Trust Companies Act 2005, constructive and resulting trusts and trusts across borders. They also cover succession, divorce, the inventory and transmission of keys and the cross-border estate.
The Trustees Act gives the basic framework for Singapore-law trusts. It gives a trustee a general power of investment subject to the trust instrument, and a duty to have regard to suitability and diversification. Trust business requires a licence under the Trust Companies Act 2005, with a minimum capital of S$250,000. Banks are exempt, and private trust companies are too, subject to an AML check by a licensed company.
Singapore has no statutory segregation rule for crypto-assets in insolvency. The question is whether the custodian held the tokens on trust. If it did, they never formed part of its estate.
Estate duty was removed for deaths on and after 15 February 2008, so the questions are mostly those of the law of succession in each country concerned. A family from a civil law country must also ask how its home system treats a trust.
Digital assets add their own problem: an heir without keys has nothing. The book sets out an inventory, key arrangements and a ten-point protocol.
Start with the trust as Singapore's answer to custody risk, the Trustees Act 1967 and the trustee's duties or why digital assets break the ordinary plan.
Trusts, Holding Structures and the Variable Capital Company
A financial centre that serves families and investors needs more than banks and asset managers. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementTrust law in Singapore
The trust reached Singapore with English law. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementLicensed trust companies
The Trust Companies Act 2005 governs the licensing and regulation of trust companies in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementPrivate trust companies
A private trust company (PTC) is a company formed to act as trustee for the trusts of one family. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementThe Variable Capital Company
By 2017 Singapore had become one of the leading centres for the management of funds in Asia, yet its asset managers domiciled many of their funds elsewhere. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementHolding companies, treaties and substance
The private company limited by shares remains the most common structuring vehicle in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementTrusts, Holding Structures and the Variable Capital Company: practical consequences
The choice of vehicle follows from the purpose of the structure. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementComparison with Geneva, Hong Kong and Jersey
Geneva and Singapore both administer trusts for international families, although their legal positions differ fundamentally. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementTrusts, Holding Structures and the Variable Capital Company: summary
Singapore offers wealthy families and investors a complete set of structuring vehicles under its own law: the trust, the licensed and the private trust company, the Variable Capital Company and the… Read more Singapore · Private LawThe trust as Singapore's answer to custody risk
Singapore has no statutory segregation rule for crypto assets in insolvency. Read more Singapore · Private LawExpress trusts and the three certainties
An express trust arises only where the settlor manifests an intention that the trustee hold property for the benefit of another. No particular words are needed. Read more Singapore · Private LawThe Quistclose trust
A Quistclose trust arises where money or other property is transferred for a specified purpose on terms that it is not at the free disposal of the recipient. Read more Singapore · Private LawThe custodian as trustee
Until 2024 whether a Singapore crypto custodian was a trustee depended entirely on its terms. Read more Singapore · Private LawThe Trustees Act 1967 and the trustee's duties
A trustee of a Singapore-law trust has the general power of investment conferred by s 4 of the Trustees Act 1967, which allows the trustee to make any investment that an absolute owner could make,… Read more Singapore · Private LawThe Trust Companies Act 2005
Carrying on trust business in Singapore requires a licence under the Trust Companies Act 2005 unless an exemption applies. Read more Singapore · Private LawConstructive and resulting trusts
Trusts arising by operation of law are the subject of Chapter IV, where they appear as remedies for fraud and mistake. One point belongs here. Read more Singapore · Private LawTrusts across the border
Singapore is not a party to the Hague Trusts Convention of 1 July 1985. Read more Singapore · Private LawPitfalls and opposing views
Three recurring errors deserve a warning. The first is the belief that calling an arrangement "custody" makes it a trust. It does not. The word describes a service. Read more Singapore · Private LawTwo moments when control changes hands
Digital assets pass to other people at two predictable moments: divorce and death. Both expose the same structural feature of the asset class. Read more Singapore · Private LawDigital assets in divorce
On divorce the Family Justice Courts divide the matrimonial assets under s 112 of the Women's Charter 1961 in such proportions as the court thinks just and equitable. Read more Singapore · Private LawSuccession
A Singapore estate is administered under the Probate and Administration Act 1934. Where there is a will, the executor obtains a grant of probate. Read more Singapore · Private LawThe cross-border estate with Swiss elements
Singapore applies the common-law choice-of-law rules for succession. Succession to movables is governed by the law of the deceased's domicile at death. Read more Singapore · StructuringWhy digital assets break the ordinary plan
An ordinary estate plan assumes that the assets can be found and that someone other than the deceased can get at them. Read more Singapore · StructuringThe inventory
The inventory is the digital-asset wealth statement of Chapter VII, extended for the succession case. Read more Singapore · StructuringKey management for transmission
Four arrangements are used to make keys available after death, each with a trade-off between security during life and accessibility after it. Read more Singapore · StructuringSwiss instruments
A Swiss will may be made by public deed, in holographic form (handwritten, dated and signed) or orally in emergency. Read more Singapore · StructuringSingapore instruments
A Singapore will must be in writing, signed by the testator at the foot or end and witnessed by two or more witnesses present at the same time, under the Wills Act 1838. Read more Singapore · StructuringThe cross-border estate
A deceased domiciled in Switzerland is subject to Swiss succession law and Swiss jurisdiction for the whole estate, including assets abroad, under Arts 86 and 90 PILA, unless the deceased, being a… Read more Singapore · StructuringThe ten-point protocol
A plan that works in both hubs, for a client with assets in both, has ten points. Read more