The Trusts Act Explained

What the Trusts Act 2001 is

The Trusts Act 2001 (Act 14 of 2001) is the main statute on trusts in Mauritius. It came into force on 1 December 2001 and it governs how a trust is created, who may run it, what the people involved can and cannot do, and how long the arrangement can last. Readers who search for the "trust act Mauritius" or the "Mauritius Trust Act" are almost always looking for this text, so it is the right starting point for any family considering a trust governed by Mauritian law.

The consolidated version published by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) lists the Acts of 2011 (20/11), 2012 (27/12) and 2019 (9/19) as its latest amendments, with cross-references to a later amendment of 2023 (Act 20 of 2023, effective 29 March 2024) in the definition of "financial crime". The Act does not stand alone: the Financial Services Act 2007, the financial crime legislation known as FIAMLA 2002 and the Income Tax Act all add duties and conditions around it.

This page follows the Act the way a family would meet it: the people first, then the rules on control, duration and information, then the rules that sit around the Act. It is general information, not advice on your own situation. Where the answer depends on facts such as residence, the nature of the assets or the family's structure, the point is flagged.

The Act at a glance

How the people fit together

A trust is not a legal entity. It is a relationship in which the trustee holds assets for the benefit of others, under a deed drawn up by the settlor. The diagram shows the usual chain in a family trust.

The rest of this page takes each role in turn and then moves to the rules that apply to the trust as a whole.

The settlor under the Trusts Act

Wearing several hats

Under article 8, the settlor may also be a trustee, a beneficiary, a protector or an enforcer. There is one firm limit: the settlor cannot be the only beneficiary of the trust they created. The Act therefore accepts that a family member who sets up a trust may keep a real place in it, but not that the trust be a disguised personal holding with no one else in view.

How much control can safely be kept is a separate and delicate question, because a settlor who keeps too much can leave the trust open to challenge. That is covered in the page on how much control a settlor can keep.

Gifts by a non-citizen settlor

Article 8 also provides that the transfer made by a settlor who is not a Mauritian citizen cannot be set aside under the succession rules of the settlor's own domicile or nationality. For international families this is one of the most cited features of the Act. It does not make every transfer immune from every claim, and it should be read together with the rules on forced heirship, which deserve their own analysis.

Irrevocable unless the deed says otherwise

Article 11 presumes that a trust is irrevocable by the settlor and by the settlor's legal representative, unless the deed expressly includes a power of revocation. The practical consequence is that a trust is a decision to give up ownership, not a revocable arrangement like a will. If flexibility matters, it has to be written into the deed from the start. The trade-offs are discussed in revocable vs irrevocable trusts.

The trustee: the person who carries the legal load

The qualified trustee

Article 2 defines a "qualified trustee" as a FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence), or any other person resident in Mauritius whom the FSC has authorised to provide trustee services. Article 28 then limits a trust to 4 trustees at most, with at least one qualified trustee at all times. The trust does not become invalid or lapse merely because a trustee or a qualified trustee is missing, so a gap in the line-up is a compliance problem to repair rather than the end of the trust.

The Financial Services Act 2007 reinforces this: anyone acting as a corporate trustee or qualified trustee under the Trusts Act must hold a management licence from the FSC. A family choosing a trustee is therefore choosing among licensed or authorised providers, not among anyone willing to act.

Records and confidentiality

Article 38(3) obliges the trustee to keep up-to-date accounts and documents, and 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 are kept for at least 5 years after the operations they concern are completed.

Article 33, rewritten by Act 9/19 with effect from 29 May 2019, sets the opposite rule on information leaving the trustee's hands: the trustee keeps trust information confidential. A court orders disclosure only on the application of an investigating authority, and only where the information is required in good faith for an investigation or a trial relating to a financial crime. Confidentiality is therefore real but not absolute.

The detail of what a trustee owes the family, including how it reaches beneficiaries, is in the duties of a trustee.

The protector

Article 24 allows the deed to provide for a protector, who may be an adult (including the settlor) or a legal person, with the task of advising the trustee. Unless the deed says otherwise, the protector can remove and appoint trustees, fix the law that governs the trust, change the place of administration and withhold consent to certain acts. Holding these powers does not make the protector a trustee.

For a family, the protector is the most useful safety valve in the Act, and also the one that needs the most careful drafting, since broad powers shift the balance between trustee and protector. See the role of the trust protector for the practical choices.

The beneficiaries

Rights in the deed, not in the Act alone

The Act gives the trustee wide room to manage and leaves the beneficiaries' entitlements largely to the deed. What a beneficiary can expect depends on whether the trust is discretionary or fixed, on the wording and on any letter of wishes. The Act does, however, give beneficiaries some points of reference: the trustee's register of beneficiaries under article 38(3), the trustee's duties generally, and the court's ability to intervene if a trustee fails in them.

Protective, or spendthrift, trusts

Article 18 expressly recognises protective trusts, often called spendthrift trusts. A beneficiary's interest can be made subject to termination, to restrictions on transfer or to suspension if the beneficiary becomes insolvent or if the beneficiary's assets are seized. This is how a family can provide for an heir who is exposed to creditors without handing over a sum that could be lost. The mechanics are in the page on spendthrift trusts.

Duration and accumulation

Article 9 sets the maximum life of a trust, other than a purpose trust, at 99 years from its creation, unless it ends earlier. Article 10 allows income to be accumulated during the whole of that maximum period, but not for more than 25 years if the trust holds real property located in Mauritius.

For most families the real questions are whether the trust should last a long time and how it will ever be wound up. Both are covered in how long a Mauritius trust can last.

Foreign trusts under article 60

Article 60 governs foreign trusts that meet Mauritian law. A foreign trust is governed by its own terms and its own law. It cannot be enforced in Mauritius where enforcement would amount to an offence, would be contrary to public policy or would apply directly to immovable property located in Mauritius. The wider picture, including how a Mauritian court approaches a trust created elsewhere, is explained in how Mauritius recognises foreign trusts.

Registers, transparency and anti-money-laundering rules

The Trusts Act sits inside a framework of disclosure to the authorities, even though the trust itself is confidential towards the public.

• FSC register of trusts. Article 26A of the Financial Services Act 2007 requires the FSC to keep a register of domestic trusts and of foreign trusts that have at least one qualified trustee. It holds, among other things, the name and features of the trust, the deed and its amendments, the identity and addresses of beneficiaries, trustees, settlors, protectors and enforcers, the purpose, the governing law, the place of administration and the service providers. Article 26A(2) was amended by Act 13 of 2026, effective 1 September 2026, which repealed paragraph (g) of the list of register contents. The qualified trustee must send the FSC the information and documents it needs, in the form and within the time the FSC sets, and the FSC may inspect the trustee and have information verified at the trustee's cost.
• Licensee records. Article 29 of the same Act requires each licensee to keep a register of the beneficial owners of every client (Act 11/18, effective 1 October 2018), and each qualified trustee to keep a register of every trust under its administration, available to the FSC on request (paragraph 5(aa), inserted by Act 11/24, effective 1 August 2024). These duties cover existing and new clients and trusts.
• Beneficial ownership. Under FIAMLA 2002, in the FIU's 2026 updated version, the beneficial owner of a trust-type legal arrangement includes the settlor, the trustee, any protector, each beneficiary (or the class of beneficiaries and objects of a power) and any other individual with ultimate effective control, including through a chain of control. The FSC also publishes Practice Notes for qualified trustees and corporate trusteeship providers on keeping this information up to date.
• Declaring trustee status. Under article 17C(5A) of FIAMLA, a trustee of an express trust must tell a reporting person, such as a bank, that they act as trustee when entering a business relationship or carrying out an occasional transaction of at least Rs 500 000 or the foreign-currency equivalent.
• Reporting persons. FIAMLA lists entities acting as qualified trustee under the Trusts Act among reporting persons, who 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 for up to 5 years.

The question of whether anyone can look at the register is answered in the page on the register of trusts. In short, it is a regulatory tool, not a public directory.

How the Act meets the tax rules

The Trusts Act says little about tax; the Income Tax Act does. Under the Income Tax Act 1995 as consolidated up to the Finance Act 2026, any trust is taxable on its taxable income at the Part IV rate of the First Schedule, which is 15%. Article 46(2) still refers to a trust whose settlor is non-resident (or holds a Global Business Licence) and whose beneficiaries are all non-resident (or hold a GBL), or to a purpose trust whose purpose is carried out outside Mauritius, but that trust remains taxed at the same 15% Part IV rate. Under article 46(4), any distribution to a trust beneficiary is deemed to be a dividend in the beneficiary's hands.

Rules of this kind change, and their effect depends on residence and on the type of income. The page on how trusts are taxed in Mauritius sets out the framework; the final analysis belongs with a tax adviser.

Purpose trusts, briefly

Articles 19 and 20 also cover purpose trusts and charitable trusts, which are valid without individual beneficiaries if strict conditions are met. They serve a different need from a family trust and are treated elsewhere, so this page does not develop them.

Using the Act in practice

A short checklist for a family reading the Act for the first time:

• Decide who the settlor is and whether they will also be a beneficiary, trustee or protector
• Confirm whether the deed should allow revocation, since the default is irrevocability
• Choose a qualified trustee that is a FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence) or an authorised person
• Decide whether a protector is wanted and which powers the deed gives them
• Check the duration, and any limit on accumulating income if Mauritian real property is involved
• Ask how beneficial ownership information will be recorded and updated
• Take advice on tax and succession in each country that touches the family

Families who want their situation looked at can use the contact form, which sends the request to an FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence).