Company, shareholder and founding instruments · 04
Trust deed
Separates ownership from benefit — and only works if the formalities are exact.
Separates ownership from benefit — and only works if the formalities are exact.
Identification of the founder, the trustees and the beneficiaries; the trust object; the trustees’ powers and their limits; an independent trustee where the trust holds assets for others; decision-making and quorum; the distribution discretion; amendment and termination; and the security or exemption position under the Trust Property Control Act.
Trustees may not act before the Master has issued letters of authority under section 6 — acts before that date are void, not voidable, and that catches a great many transactions. Beneficial-ownership information must now be lodged with the Master and kept current. The Regulation of Trusts Bill published in August 2026 would add annual returns, financial statements and personal administrative penalties on trustees, so any deed drafted now should anticipate that regime rather than be amended into it later.
The law it sits under
What governs this instrument.
A trust is created by a trust instrument lodged with the Master under the Trust Property Control Act 57 of 1988. A trustee may act only once authorised by the Master under section 6(1), and acts performed before authorisation are of no force. Since the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022, trustees also carry beneficial-ownership recording and lodging duties.
Related pages, tools and documents
Where this instrument sits in the wider set, and the engagement that produces it.
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