Trusts and Foundations

Dixcart started as a trust company and was founded on the premise of not only understanding money but also understanding families.

Trusts and Foundations Expertise

Dixcart has over 50 years of experience working with wealthy individuals and their families in succession and estate planning and in the efficient administration of their businesses and family offices. We are therefore well equipped to assist with the formation and administration of trusts, foundations and private or managed trust structures.

We offer trust and foundation services through five fully regulated and independent entities, located in jurisdictions that optimise Dixcart’s offering for clients, with interests all over the world.

Dixcart trust and foundation services are tailored to each specific client. We work closely with our clients’ lawyers, accountants and tax advisers and/or the equivalent Dixcart professionals, as well as specialists within the Dixcart Group.

Trusts and foundations are used for a wide variety of reasons, which typically include:

  • Preservation of wealth and selected distribution of assets
  • Favourable tax treatment
  • Circumvention of forced heirship laws
  • Asset protection
  • Confidentiality
  • Continuity on death
  • Philanthropy
Trusts and Foundations


Trusts and Foundations – The Structure

The most important distinction between a trust and a foundation is that a trust is a legal relationship between the Settlor, the Trustee and the Beneficiaries, whilst a foundation is a legal entity in its own right.  Trust Trustees are the legal, but not beneficial, owners of the assets. 

A trust can be used for commercial purposes, whereas foundations cannot, except under limited circumstances.

Often a specific choice between a trust or a foundation is more dependent on how familiar and comfortable an individual is with the particular structure, rather than its precise characteristics.  With the expertise available through the Dixcart offices, we are able to offer different solutions incorporating trusts and foundations.

Dixcart Trust and Foundation Services

Dixcart has extensive experience in the provision of trust and foundation services.

Highly regarded jurisdictions regulate trust service providers and we are proud that Dixcart is regulated to provide trust services in the following five jurisdictions:

Cyprus, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Malta, and Switzerland.


Related Articles

  • Guernsey Trusts – Trust Creation and Practical Uses for Estate and Succession Planning

  • German: Einblick in die Treuhandstrukturen von Guernsey: Ein Leitfaden von Dixcart Guernsey

  • German: Nachlass – und Nachfolgeregelung: Guernsey Treuhandgesellschaften und Stiftungen


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Residence & Citizenship