Trustees and corporate service providers are gatekeepers in Singapore. The articles collected here explain the trust as an answer to custody risk, the custodian as trustee, the Trustees Act 1967, the Trust Companies Act 2005 and trusts across borders. The registration of corporate service providers is summarised below.
Trust business in Singapore requires a licence under the Trust Companies Act 2005. The minimum capital is S$250,000. Banks are exempt, and private trust companies are too, subject to an AML check by a licensed company.
The Corporate Service Providers Act 2024, in force since 9 June 2025, requires all providers of corporate services to register with ACRA. Nominee directors may be supplied by way of business only through a registered provider, with a fit and proper check.
If you appoint a Singapore trustee or a corporate secretary, expect to be asked for documents on settlors, beneficiaries and controllers. Licensed trust companies apply MAS's notice on anti-money laundering.
The money-laundering case of August 2023 touched corporate service providers among others, and it has made these questions more searching.
Start with the Trust Companies Act 2005, the custodian as trustee or trusts across the border.
Family Offices: Sections 13O and 13U and the Single Family Office
At the end of 2020, about 400 single family offices in Singapore held a tax incentive granted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementThe rise of the single family office
MAS describes a single family office as an entity that manages wealth for, or on behalf of, one family and is wholly owned or controlled by members of that family. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementThe tax incentive schemes and their conditions
Singapore’s tax incentives for funds form a family of four schemes under the Income Tax Act 1947. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementLicensing exemptions and supervisory expectations
Fund management is a regulated activity under the Securities and Futures Act 2001, for which a capital markets services licence is normally required. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementSubstance, local spending and investment requirements
The headcount condition is the clearest expression of the demand for substance. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementScrutiny after 2023
On 15 August 2023 the police arrested ten foreign nationals in coordinated raids. The assets eventually seized, frozen or subject to prohibition of disposal orders amounted to about S$3 billion. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementPractical consequences for families and their advisers
The choice between section 13O, section 13OA and section 13U follows from the size of the assets and the existing structure. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementFamily Offices: Sections 13O and 13U and the Single Family Office: Comparison with Geneva and Hong Kong
The Geneva volume described a city where family offices grew out of the private banking tradition, without any special tax regime. Read more Singapore · Wealth ManagementFamily Offices: Sections 13O and 13U and the Single Family Office: summary
Single family offices with Singapore tax incentives multiplied from about 400 at the end of 2020 to more than 2,000 at the end of 2024, drawn by stability, the common law, a deep private banking… 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