Duties of a Trustee Toward the Family

When a family places assets in a trust, day-to-day power passes to the trustee. The duties of a trustee in Mauritius are therefore the family's main protection: they define what the trustee must do, what it must not do, and what the people who benefit can ask of it. This guide reads those duties from the beneficiaries' side. It is general information, not advice; the exact position always depends on the trust deed and the facts.

Why the trustee's duties matter to a family

A trustee holds legal title to the trust property, but not for its own benefit. The property is held for the beneficiaries, or for the purpose set out in the deed. That separation is the whole point of the structure, and it is why the law attaches duties to the office. If you are new to the vocabulary, start with the Trusts Act explained and the glossary.

Three sources define what a trustee owes:

• The trust deed, which sets the objects, the powers and the limits. See what a trust deed contains.
• The Trusts Act 2001, which sets minimum rules that apply whatever the deed says.
• The supervisory framework, which combines licensing by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and anti-money laundering rules.

A beneficiary who understands which of these is in play can ask better questions and recognise a problem earlier.

The core duties, seen from the family's side

Act within the deed and for the beneficiaries

The first duty is to follow the terms of the trust. A trustee cannot invent powers the deed does not give, nor ignore restrictions the settlor wrote in. In a discretionary trust, the trustee has a genuine choice over who receives what, but it must exercise that choice honestly and for the purposes of the trust, not to suit itself or a single family member.

Keep proper accounts and records

Article 38(3) of the Trusts Act 2001 requires the trustee to keep up-to-date accounts and documents. It must also keep an alphabetical register of the names and last known addresses of each beneficiary and settlor. This applies even to a non-resident foreign trust that the trustee administers. Accounting records must be kept for at least 5 years after the completion of the operations they concern (provision dated 22 December 2012, Act 27/12).

For a family, this is the practical foundation of every other right. Without records, nobody can tell whether the trustee has done its job.

Keep information confidential

Article 33 of the Trusts Act 2001, rewritten by Act 9/19 with effect from 29 May 2019, makes the trustee keep information about the trust confidential. A court orders disclosure only when an investigating authority applies and the information is required in good faith for an investigation or proceedings relating to financial crime. Confidentiality is a duty owed to the family, but it is not absolute, and it does not stop beneficiaries from receiving the information they are entitled to. Our page on whether Mauritius trusts are confidential goes further.

Hold the trust together, not the settlor's wishes alone

The settlor may be a trustee, a beneficiary, a protector or an enforcer, but may not be the sole beneficiary of the trust it created (article 8). Unless the deed expressly provides for revocation, a trust is presumed irrevocable by the settlor and the settlor's legal representative (article 11). In practice, once assets are transferred, the trustee owes its duties to the trust as it stands, not to whatever the settlor later prefers. A letter of wishes can guide the trustee, but it does not bind it in the way the deed does.

Duties in the regulatory layer

The trustee is not only answerable to the family. Several rules push it to maintain accurate information about the people behind the trust.

What the register of trusts holds

Article 26A of the Financial Services Act 2007 obliges the FSC to keep a register of domestic trusts and of foreign trusts with at least one qualified trustee. It contains, among other things, the name and characteristics of the trust, the trust deed and its amendments, and the identities and addresses of beneficiaries, trustees, settlors, protectors and enforcers. It also records the purpose, governing law, place of administration and service providers. The consolidated text as at 1 September 2026 notes that Act 13 of 2026, in force on that date, repealed paragraph (g) of the list of information. For the practical picture, see whether there is a register of trusts in Mauritius.

The register is a supervisory tool. It does not mean that the public, or other family members, can read the file.

Beneficial ownership

Under the FIAMLA 2002, as updated by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in 2026, the beneficial owner of a trust-type legal arrangement includes the settlor, the trustee, any protector, each beneficiary (or the class of beneficiaries and the objects of a power) and any other natural person exercising ultimate effective control, including through a chain of control. The FSC also publishes Practice Notes for qualified trustees and corporate service providers, explaining how to keep this information up to date. The Practice Notes read are undated.

Entities acting as qualified trustees are reporting persons under the FIAMLA. They must apply customer due diligence and report suspicious transactions. Knowingly providing false customer due diligence information is punishable by a fine of up to Rs 500 000 and imprisonment of up to 5 years.

Who watches the trustee

Beneficiaries are not the only check on a trustee. The structure of the trust can add others.

The protector

Article 24 of the Trusts Act 2001 allows the deed to appoint a protector, an adult (including the settlor) or a legal person, to advise the trustee. Unless the deed says otherwise, the protector can remove and appoint trustees, fix the governing law, change the place of administration and withhold consent to certain acts, without becoming a trustee. For a family, a protector can be a practical counterweight when relations with the trustee break down. See the trust protector for the role in detail.

The enforcer

In a purpose trust, which has no beneficiaries, the enforcer takes the place of the beneficiaries. Under article 21, one person cannot be both trustee and enforcer of the same trust, and the enforcer is entitled to the annual accounts, a copy of the trust deed and the legal advice the trustees receive. This is a family-trust page, so the point here is simply that the Act recognises oversight by someone other than the trustee.

The number and quality of trustees

Article 28 limits a trust to 4 trustees at most, including at least one qualified trustee at all times. A qualified trustee is, under article 2, a FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence) or another Mauritius-resident person authorised by the FSC to provide trustee services. The trust does not become invalid or lapse merely because a trustee or qualified trustee is missing, but the family should expect the gap to be filled promptly.

Practical expectations for beneficiaries

A beneficiary cannot supervise a trustee day to day, but some questions are reasonable to ask and some documents reasonable to expect:

• Whether you are recorded as a beneficiary, and in what capacity
• Whether the trustee keeps up-to-date accounts, as the Act requires
• How distributions are decided under the deed
• Who the protector is, if there is one, and what the protector may do
• Who in the trustee's organisation handles your trust

Not every beneficiary has the same entitlements. A fixed interest is stronger than a hope of receiving something from a discretionary pool, and some trusts deliberately limit what beneficiaries see. To work out where you stand, read how to find out if you are a beneficiary and how a beneficiary can request trust information. The broader picture of rights is in trust beneficiaries: rights and expectations.

When a trustee falls short

If a trustee does not keep records, ignores the deed or favours one person improperly, the first step is usually a written request for explanation, followed by the protector if there is one. Where that fails, remedies exist through the courts. Breach of trust: remedies for beneficiaries sets out the usual routes. Which remedy fits depends on the deed, the conduct complained of and the evidence, so take advice from a suitably qualified adviser before acting.

The same applies to a protective or spendthrift arrangement. Article 18 recognises a trust in which a beneficiary's interest can be ended, restricted from assignment or suspended on the beneficiary's insolvency or the seizure of the beneficiary's assets. The trustee's duty there is to apply the deed as written, even if that disappoints the beneficiary.