Fiducie and Trust in Mauritian Law Compared

When people ask about fiducie vs trust in Mauritius, they are often comparing two things that sound alike but sit in different parts of the legal system. Mauritius is a mixed jurisdiction: its private law draws on the French-inspired Code civil mauricien, while its trust regime comes from a dedicated statute, the Trusts Act 2001. A family weighing the two needs to know which rulebook applies, who must be involved and how each instrument is supervised.

This page is general information, not advice. The right answer depends on your assets, your residence and your family, and should be confirmed by a qualified adviser.

Two legal families, one island

The Code civil mauricien is administered, together with the Companies Act 2001, the Foundations Act 2012 and several other statutes, by the Corporate and Business Registration Department. It reflects the civil-law tradition: ownership is traditionally seen as a single, undivided right, and arrangements that split legal and beneficial interests are treated with caution unless a text expressly allows them.

The trust comes from the common-law tradition. Mauritius imported it by statute: the Trusts Act 2001 (Act 14 of 2001) came into force on 1 December 2001 and has been amended since. The result is that a Mauritian trust is a creature of that Act, not of the Civil Code. If you want the fundamentals first, read what a trust is and the overview of the Trusts Act.

The word fiducie is the civil-law cousin. It denotes a fiduciary arrangement under which assets are entrusted to someone who holds them for a purpose or for named persons. Its detailed conditions come from the Civil Code and the contract itself rather than from the Trusts Act. Because the two regimes are separate, you should not assume that a rule written for trusts, such as the limits on trustees or the register of trusts, applies automatically to a fiducie.

Key figures on the trust side

Fiducie and trust compared

The right-hand column is deliberately cautious. The fiducie provisions are short compared with a full trust statute, and many questions that the Trusts Act answers expressly are, for a fiducie, left to the Code and to the text of the agreement.

What the Trusts Act gives a family

The Trusts Act supplies a ready-made frame that a family can rely on. The main features worth knowing are these.

A regulated trustee

Section 2 defines a qualified trustee as an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence), or another Mauritius-resident person authorised by the Financial Services Commission to provide trustee services. Section 28 caps the number of trustees at four and requires at least one qualified trustee at all times, although the trust does not become invalid solely because a trustee or qualified trustee is missing. The duties of a trustee are developed on a separate page.

Defined roles for the settlor and protector

Section 8 lets the settlor also act as trustee, beneficiary, protector or enforcer, but the settlor cannot be the only beneficiary of the trust. Section 24 allows the deed to appoint a protector, a person of full age (the settlor included) or a legal entity, who advises the trustee. Unless the deed says otherwise, the protector may remove and appoint trustees, set the governing law and change the place of administration, without becoming a trustee. How far a settlor may keep control is covered in more detail elsewhere on this site.

Irrevocability by default

Section 11 presumes that a trust is irrevocable by the settlor and the settlor's legal representative unless the deed expressly provides for revocation. This is a deliberate design choice: it supports the separation between the settlor's estate and the trust property.

Protective and purpose features

Section 18 recognises the protective or spendthrift trust, where a beneficiary's interest may be terminated, restricted or suspended on the beneficiary's insolvency or on seizure of the beneficiary's property. Section 19 allows a purpose trust to be valid without beneficiaries, provided the purpose is precise, reasonable, achievable and lawful, an enforcer and a successor enforcer are named, at least one trustee is a qualified trustee, and the fate of surplus assets is set. These are tools aimed at specific situations; see how long a Mauritius trust can last for the duration rules.

Where the fiducie fits

A fiducie may suit a narrow, contractual need where the parties want to stay inside the Civil Code and do not need the machinery of a trust statute. Examples sometimes discussed are holding an asset for a defined short-term purpose or a security-type arrangement between identified parties. Whether a given structure is available, how it is formalised and what protections attach to it should be checked against the current text of the Code and against advice on your facts.

What a fiducie does not do is replicate the full set of features that the Trusts Act provides to a family planning over a generation: a statutory framework for protectors, a licensed trustee, a specific confidentiality rule and a long maximum duration.

Succession, heirs and protection

Mauritian succession law reserves part of an estate to children. A transfer to a trust does not automatically remove that issue, and the Trusts Act includes a rule on transfers by non-citizen settlors: under section 8, such a transfer cannot be set aside under the succession rules of the settlor's domicile or nationality. For citizens and residents, the interaction with reserved shares is more delicate. Read forced heirship and trusts before assuming anything about what a structure can protect.

The same caution applies to a fiducie. Because it is rooted in the Civil Code, its relationship with reserved shares must be analysed against the Code's own rules, not against the Trusts Act.

Tax, transparency and compliance

For a trust, the Income Tax Act 1995, as consolidated up to the Finance Act 2026, taxes a trust on its taxable income at the rate set in Part IV of the First Schedule, which is 15%. The former exemption for a non-resident trust, which depended on a non-residence declaration, was repealed by the Finance Act 2021 with deemed effect from 1 July 2021 and no longer appears in the consolidated text. See how trusts are taxed in Mauritius for the broader picture. The tax position of a fiducie is a separate question and should not be assumed to match.

On transparency, a trust with a qualified trustee falls inside a regulatory net:

• Section 26A of the Financial Services Act 2007 requires the FSC to keep a register of domestic and foreign trusts having at least one qualified trustee, recording items such as the deed, the identity of the parties, the governing law and the place of administration. See whether there is a register of trusts.
• Section 38(3) of the Trusts Act obliges the trustee to keep up-to-date accounts and an alphabetical register of beneficiaries and settlors, with accounting records kept for at least 5 years after the operations concerned.
• Under the FIAMLA 2002, the beneficial owner of a trust-type legal arrangement includes the settlor, the trustee, any protector, each beneficiary or class of beneficiaries and any other person with ultimate effective control.

Section 33 of the Trusts Act keeps trust information confidential. A court orders disclosure only on the request of an investigating authority, where the information is needed in good faith for an investigation or proceedings relating to financial crime.

Foreign elements

If family members live abroad, or assets sit in several countries, the recognition question matters. Under section 60 of the Trusts Act, a foreign trust is governed by its own terms and law, but it is not enforceable in Mauritius where that would amount to an offence, contradict public policy or apply directly to immovable property in Mauritius. Related questions are covered in choosing the governing law, how the Hague Convention applies and how Mauritius recognises foreign trusts.

Which one suits a family?

For most families thinking about succession, protection of assets across generations and an identifiable regulatory framework, the trust is the more established route in Mauritius. A fiducie is more specialised. In both cases, the structure must be designed around the family's circumstances, and that analysis belongs with a professional adviser. To be put in touch with an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence), use the contact form.

Practical checklist before deciding

• List the assets, where they are and who owns them today
• Identify the heirs and any reserved shares that may apply
• Decide whether a long-term structure or a short, contractual one is needed
• Confirm the residence and tax position of settlor and beneficiaries
• Ask an adviser to confirm the current Civil Code provisions on fiducie