Updated 13.08.2026
Legal structures · Trusts
An international trust in Nevis assetprotection under the law
Nevis is one of the two or three jurisdictions in the world whose trust law was written specifically for asset protection. Foreign judgments against the trust are not enforced here automatically: the dispute has to be brought before the local court. We work with citizens of Russia and Belarus.
- We design a structure for the task instead of selling «a trust» as such
- We say plainly what the trust will not protect you from — before you sign
- We prepare the source-of-funds file for the bank and the trustee
The guide figures depend on the composition of the assets, the number of beneficiaries and the bank’s requirements. The exact quotation for the set-up and the annual upkeep is fixed before the agreement.
Applicability
Is Nevis the right structure for your task
01 Main purpose
02 Assets
03 Beneficiaries
04 Bank account needed
The selector does not give a legal opinion: applicability is confirmed after the analysis of assets, family and tax residence.
The structure
What an international Nevis trust is
A trust is neither a company nor an account. It is a common-law construction: you transfer assets to a trustee, who owns them in the interests of the beneficiaries you name, under the rules written into the trust deed. Nevis set this construction out in a law of its own — the Nevis International Exempt Trust Ordinance.
What has been transferred into the trust ceases to be your personal property — which is precisely why it is not divided on the settlor’s divorce, does not form part of the estate on death and is not directly available to personal creditors. It also means that the transfer is a serious decision, not a formality.
Who the beneficiaries are, when and on what conditions they receive distributions, what the trustee must do and what it may not do — all of it is fixed in the deed and in the letter of wishes. Through the protector you keep the levers of control: the right to change the trustee and to veto key decisions.
Nevis does not recognise the automatic enforcement of foreign judgments against a trust: the creditor has to run the case again before the Nevis court, with local counsel, a court deposit and a heightened standard of proof. For most claimants that makes an attack economically pointless.
A Nevis trust can exist for decades and pass capital down the generations under rules written in advance — without wills, inheritance disputes or the break-up of a business.
Fit
Applying the structure: when it fits and when it does not
A plain filter before the work begins: a trust solves particular tasks, and there are situations in which we will talk you out of it ourselves.
- Capital from $1m: real estate, shareholdings, portfolios, accounts — and the task of protecting it across generations
- A public or exposed profession: an entrepreneur, a doctor, a developer — protection against future claims
- Succession without wills and disputes: distributions to children by age and on conditions
- A family in several countries: one document instead of a conflict of inheritance laws
- Assets already held abroad, or a plan to move them into a transparent structure
- A claim has already been filed or is expected: a transfer of assets made after the claim arose can be set aside as made to the detriment of the creditor
- The aim is «to hide it from the tax authority»: a trust is declared under the rules of your country of tax residence, and we build only transparent structures
- The budget does not carry the upkeep: a trust has annual trustee and administration costs
- You need full personal control over every asset: a trust without a real transfer of powers to the trustee is treated by the courts as a sham
Roles
The legal structure and the parties
The construction holds together on the distribution of roles — each with its own rights and its own limits.
Transfers the assets and sets the rules. After the transfer they do not own the assets personally — that is both the protection and the price of the decision.
A licensed Nevis trust company. The legal owner of the assets, bound to act strictly under the deed and in the interests of the beneficiaries. It answers under the law and under its licence.
Your lever of control: may replace the trustee, veto distributions and approve major transactions. Usually a trusted person or a professional protector.
Those for whose benefit the trust exists: the family, the children, you yourself. They receive distributions under the written rules — their names are not published in the Nevis registers.
Protection
The legal limits of using the structure
We name the strengths of the law together with its limits — that way the decision is taken on facts.
A judgment of a Russian, EU or US court against a Nevis trust does not by itself operate: the creditor will have to start fresh proceedings before the Nevis court under local law.
The law requires the claimant to pay a court deposit and to prove bad faith in the transfer to a heightened standard — and to do so within a short limitation period running from the transfer of the assets.
Assets transferred into the trust before the marriage or before the dispute arose do not form part of the divisible property or of the settlor’s estate.
The death or incapacity of the settlor does not stop the structure: the trustee goes on performing the written rules without courts or notaries.
The limits we state plainly: a trust does not protect against claims that arose before the assets were transferred — such transfers can be set aside. A trust does not cancel your tax obligations and does not make assets invisible to the authorities: the exchange of information and the duty to declare both operate. Criminal proceedings, sanctions regimes and maintenance obligations lie beyond what any structure can do. Anyone who promises otherwise is misleading you.
Prices
The options for the structure and the cost
The «from» prices are for a standard structure with a confirmed source of funds. The exact quotation is fixed by the agreement once the task has been reviewed: there are no charges beyond the quotation.
from $12,500
Annual upkeep: upkeep thereafter from $6,000 a year
Protecting liquid assets: accounts and securities portfolios
Included
- Design and the trust deed
- Registration of the Nevis exempt trust
- A licensed trustee — the first year included
- The settlor’s letter of wishes
- The government fees of Nevis
from $16,500
Annual upkeep: upkeep thereafter from $8,000 a year
Business shareholdings and real estate: the assets are held by an underlying Nevis LLC
Included
- Everything in the «Trust» package
- A Nevis LLC to hold the assets — formation and the first year
- Operational control through the manager of the LLC
- The registered agent and the address
from $24,500
Annual upkeep: upkeep thereafter from $9,500 a year
Family capital for generations: the complete circuit, bank included
Included
- Everything in the «Trust + company» package
- The protector: the control arrangement and its terms of reference
- The source-of-funds file for the trustee and the bank
- Opening the account for the structure
- A plan for distributions and succession
The package price does not include: the bank’s own charges, legal work in the countries of the assets when real estate and shareholdings are transferred, and a professional protector if you want one. All of it is counted in the quotation before the agreement.
What drives the quote
The factors that affect the cost of the project
The packages cover the standard tasks. Here is what moves the budget up or down — and we count it before the agreement, not after.
A trust alone — or a trust with underlying companies, a policy and accounts in several banks.
Money in an account is transferred simply; company shareholdings, real estate and portfolios require legal work in the countries of the assets.
The licensed trustee’s annual fee depends on the size and the activity of the structure. A professional protector is charged separately.
A transparent history of the capital goes through quickly; long chains of transactions take more work to confirm the source.
In the quotation we separate our own fee, the trustee’s fees and the government charges. The total is fixed by the agreement — there are no charges beyond the quotation.
Cost of ownership
The cost of the structure over three years
A structure costs money not only when it is created: administration, reporting and bank compliance recur every year.
- Creating the structure and the documents
- Registration and government fees
- Opening the structure’s bank account
- The first year of administration
- Administration of the structure
- Reporting and mandatory notifications
- Bank compliance and the KYC refresh
- Support of distributions to beneficiaries
- Administration of the structure
- Reporting and mandatory notifications
- Bank compliance and the KYC refresh
- A review of the structure as circumstances change
What each year contains depends on the jurisdiction, the assets and the bank’s requirements. We prepare the three-year calculation together with the set-up quotation — before the agreement.
Tax
Taxation, reporting and disclosure
A Nevis trust is exempt from local tax on income earned outside the island. But your own obligations are determined by your country of tax residence — and we design the structure with that in mind, not against it.
A trust is a foreign structure without the formation of a legal entity: its establishment is declared, and where there is control the structure falls under the CFC rules. We build the structure so that declaring it is workable and predictable.
St Kitts and Nevis takes part in the automatic exchange: the trustee, as a financial institution, reports on reportable persons. The structure is built on the assumption of transparency, not on the hope that «no one will find out».
The names of the settlor and of the beneficiaries are not published in the public registers of Nevis — confidentiality from outside eyes is preserved. But on a lawful request from the competent authorities the information is disclosed.
St Kitts and Nevis has not introduced a ban on trust services for citizens of Russia and Belarus. Compliance is assessed individually: a clean source-of-funds file is a mandatory condition.
We do not advise on «how not to pay tax». We build a structure you will be able to declare openly and that will survive any question from the authorities — the only protection that works in the long run.
Banking
An account for the trust
A trust without an account is a construction without blood in its veins. The account is opened in the name of the trustee for the trust, or in the name of an underlying company the trust owns.
Banks in the Caribbean, Switzerland and Liechtenstein for large portfolios, the UAE for operating tasks. The choice follows the profile of the assets and the family’s residence.
A full file: the source of funds and of wealth, the structure of the trust, every role. We prepare the pack in advance — see the service «Confirming the source of funds».
A Nevis trust + a holding company (a Nevis LLC or a BVI company) + an account in the company’s name. The trustee controls the company and the bank sees a structure it can follow.
Opening the account is a separate process with its own timing: we build it into the plan from day one, not after the trust has been established.
Documents
What we will need from you
We assemble the pack together — your part is to give us the source material, ours is to bring it up to the standard of the trustee and the bank.
- 01Personal documents Passports and proof of address: the settlor, the protector, the beneficiaries.
- 02The source of the capital Sale agreements, bank statements, dividend resolutions, tax returns.
- 03The list of assets What is going into the trust: accounts, portfolios, real estate, shareholdings — with the title documents.
- 04Tax residence The countries and the taxpayer numbers of every party: the notifications and the reporting depend on them.
- 05The rules for distributions Who receives funds, when and on what conditions — these rules go into the settlor’s letter of wishes.
- 06Current obligations Claims, debts, guarantees and disputes: they determine whether the protection works at all.
The first consultation takes place without handing over any documents — first we decide whether the instrument fits.
Comparison
Compare Nevis with other structures
| Nevis | |
|---|---|
| Setup | from $12,500 |
| Annual | upkeep thereafter from $6,000 a year |
| Timing | 2-4 weeks |
| Typical use | Capital from $1m: real estate, shareholdings, portfolios, accounts — and the task of protecting it across generations |
Select up to two jurisdictions above. A detailed legal comparison is prepared for the specific task.
Process
How the trust is established
From the first conversation to a working structure with an account.
What is being protected, against what, over what horizon. We check the sanctions and tax constraints of your situation and say plainly if a trust is not needed.
1-2 meetingsWe assemble the evidence for every asset — without it neither the trustee nor the bank will accept the case.
1-3 weeksThe trust deed, the letter of wishes, the roles, the underlying companies. Agreed with the licensed Nevis trustee.
1-2 weeksSigning, registration of the exempt trust, the legal transfer of the assets — each class of asset has its own procedure.
from 2 weeksOpening the account, annual administration, changes to the structure as the family’s circumstances change.
Comparison
Nevis against the alternatives
The main parameters side by side. The full pages on the alternatives are in the trusts section.
| Nevis | Cook Islands | Cyprus | BVI (VISTA) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profile | Asset protection | Asset protection | A trust in the EU | Holding companies |
| Foreign judgments | Not enforced automatically | Not enforced automatically | Recognition under EU law | English law |
| The barrier for a claimant | A deposit and local proceedings | The oldest protection case law | Standard | Standard |
| The cost of upkeep | Moderate | Higher | Moderate | Moderate |
| For Russian citizens | Available | Available | With EU residence | With reservations |
The comparison is as at the date the page was updated; availability to a particular client is confirmed after the profile has been checked.
FAQ
Questions and answers
Nevis is an island within the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis, the same state that grants citizenship by investment. The island has broad autonomy and legislation of its own: the international trust exists precisely under the law of the island of Nevis. For a family that is a convenient pairing — the passport and the ownership structure in one jurisdiction.
Direct personal ownership — yes, and that is the essence of the protection. Control is preserved through the architecture: a protector with the right of veto and the right to replace the trustee, the letter of wishes, the written rules for distributions. We design the balance so that the structure stands up in court and remains manageable for the family.
No. A transfer of assets made after the claim arose can be set aside as made to the detriment of the creditor — in Nevis too. A trust is an instrument of planning ahead, not a rescue in a fire. It is the first question we check at the consultation.
For a tax resident of Russia — yes: the establishment of a foreign structure is declared, and where control is retained the CFC rules apply. We build a structure that can be declared openly and hand your tax adviser the full pack for the reporting.
A trust is a contractual common-law construction without the status of a legal entity; a foundation is a civil-law legal person with a charter and a council. A foundation is more familiar to clients from civil-law countries and easier for EU banks to follow; a trust is more flexible and stronger on asset protection. Which suits you is a question of the task, and we work it through at the consultation.
Yes. Nevis has introduced no ban on trust services by citizenship. The mandatory condition is a confirmed source of funds: neither we nor the licensed trustee work with capital that is not transparent.
Nothing stops: the trustee goes on performing the written rules — distributions to the family, management of the assets, the handover to the next generation. That is exactly what a trust is created for: succession happens without wills, courts or pauses.
Related
Related pages
Calculation
Structure and budget: Nevis
Describe the assets, the family and the task. We will come back with the applicable structure, the setup budget and the annual upkeep.
A structure does not cancel existing creditor claims or the tax obligations of the settlor. Where the task cannot be solved lawfully, we say so before the engagement.