Trusts · Trust administration
Trusts · Ongoing administration
By then the resolutions have stopped, the beneficial-ownership register is out of date, two returns are outstanding and nobody can find the minute book. We carry the annual obligations so that never happens: you stay the trustee, and every decision stays yours.
Your trust year
Feb year-end
Nothing missed. Every deadline diarised and carried for you.
Why this exists
Most people think of a trust as something you set up. Legally it is something you run. The asset protection, the estate-duty benefit, the standing to hold property: none of it survives on the strength of the deed alone. It survives because the trust is administered as a genuinely separate structure, and that is proved by the paper trail: separate banking, minuted decisions taken jointly, an independent trustee who actually applies their mind, filings made on time.
Where that paper trail is missing, a court can find the trust is the founder's alter ego and look straight through it: which is exactly what happened in Land and Agricultural Bank of SA v Parker. The family there were founders, the only trustees and the only beneficiaries, and they ignored the formalities. The consequence was not a fine. It was that the trust stopped protecting anything.
So the formalities are not red tape wrapped around the real product. They are the product. And they recur every year, forever, which is precisely why they get dropped.
Criminal offence
Compulsory for every registered trust since 1 April 2023, and updated on every change of trustee, beneficiary or controller. Non-compliance carries a fine of up to R10 million, up to five years' imprisonment, or both: and the Master can have trustees removed.
Monthly, and stacking
Every registered trust files an ITR12T: a dormant one still files a nil return. SARS charges automated penalties of R250 to R16,000 per outstanding return, per month, for up to three years, with interest and estimated assessments behind them.
Silent, and expensive
Income vested in a beneficiary is taxed in their hands at their rate: but only if it is properly resolved and minuted before year-end. Where it isn't, the income stays in the trust and is taxed at a flat 45%. This is the single most expensive administrative failure we see.
The legal foundation
The filings on this page are not a compliance ritual invented by the Master. Every one of them is the visible form of a duty you personally carry, because a trustee is a fiduciary: someone who holds power over property that belongs to somebody else, and who may use that power only for their benefit.
That is the strictest standard our law imposes. In Doyle v Board of Executors the court described the trustee-beneficiary relationship as fiduciary in the highest degree, carrying with it a duty to account fully and openly. A trustee does not hold a title or a mandate. A trustee holds an office, and the duties attach to that office by operation of law: whether or not the deed mentions them, and whether or not anyone is watching.
Two consequences follow, and they explain everything else on this page. First, the duties are owed personally: liability for getting them wrong lands on the trustee, not on the trust. Second, they are owed continuously: there is no year in which they lapse. A duty that is continuous and personal has to be capable of being proved: which is precisely what the administration produces.
TPCA s 9(1) & s 9(2) · Sackville West v Nourse
Section 9(1) requires the care, diligence and skill reasonably expected of a person who manages the affairs of another: a higher bar than managing your own money, because the loss falls on someone else. And you cannot contract out of it: section 9(2) makes any clause exempting or indemnifying a trustee for that failure void. Indemnity clauses in deeds do not do what most trustees assume they do.
Common law · Duty of loyalty
A trustee may not put personal interest in conflict with duty: no buying trust assets or selling your own to the trust without full disclosure and authority, no commission or referral benefit arising from the office, no using a trust opportunity for your own account. In family trusts, where trustees are usually beneficiaries too, conflict is unavoidable: so the answer is disclosure, recusal, and a minute that records both.
Land and Agricultural Bank of SA v Parker
Administration can be outsourced. Discretion cannot. The decision about who receives what, and when, belongs to the trustees and may not be handed to the founder, an adviser or a dominant family member. A trustee who simply signs what is put in front of them is not exercising a discretion: and a trust with no independent mind in it is the Parker problem in its purest form.
Common law · Thorpe v Trittenwein
Unless the deed clearly says otherwise, trustees hold a joint office and must act together. A contract signed by fewer than all the authorised trustees is a nullity, not something the others can cure afterwards. Where the deed permits majority decisions, every trustee must still receive proper notice and a real opportunity to participate: a majority reached by leaving someone out is not a majority.
Common law · Duty of impartiality
Trustees must be even-handed between income and capital beneficiaries, and across generations. Impartial does not mean equal: a discretionary trustee is entitled to treat beneficiaries differently. It means the difference must flow from an honest exercise of discretion for recorded reasons, not from favouritism, pressure or inertia.
Common law · Duty to preserve and manage
Assets must actually be transferred into the trust and registered in its name, insured, and invested with regard to both preservation and reasonable growth; debts owed to the trust must be pursued. A trustee is required to manage, not merely to hold: leaving trust capital idle for years can itself be a breach.
TPCA s 10, s 11 & s 12
Money received as trustee goes into a separate trust account (s 10); trust property must be registered and identifiable as trust property (s 11); and trust property forms no part of the trustee's personal estate (s 12): which is exactly why it sits beyond the trustee's own creditors. Commingling is not an administrative slip. It attacks the foundation the protection rests on.
TPCA s 16 & s 17 · Doyle v Board of Executors
A trustee must be able to show, at any moment, what the trust owns, what it owes, what came in and where it went. The Master may call for the books and records under section 16; records must be kept for five years after termination (s 17); and beneficiaries: including discretionary beneficiaries with no vested right: are entitled to a proper account. "They're family, they know what's going on" is not an answer to this duty.
Trust deed · TPCA s 6
The deed is the source of every power a trustee has, and an act outside it is not a trust act at all. Nor may a trustee act before the Master's Letters of Authority are issued (s 6): such acts are generally void and cannot be ratified afterwards. Where the deed has become unworkable, the route is a proper amendment, not a quiet departure from its terms.
TPCA s 11A · FICA 38 of 2001
Since 1 April 2023 the fiduciary office carries hard statutory add-ons: establishing and lodging the beneficial-ownership register with the Master and keeping it current, holding certified identity documents, recording the accountable institutions the trust deals with, and disclosing your trustee capacity to them. These are duties of the office, enforced with criminal penalties: not optional good practice.
Personal exposure
Here is the connection most trustees miss, and it is the reason this service exists. Trust administration is not a compliance exercise running alongside your fiduciary duties. It is those duties, reduced to paperwork. Every task that feels like bureaucracy exists because a duty needs a dated, verifiable form.
And because the duties are personal, the administration is also your evidence. In a dispute, a SARS audit or a creditor's attack, nobody will ask what you intended. They will ask what you can produce.
| Fiduciary duty | What it requires of you | The record that proves it was done |
|---|---|---|
| Loyalty & independent judgment | Decide for yourself, in the beneficiaries' interests, disclosing any personal interest. | Minuted trustee meetings and written resolutions recording who attended, what was considered, who declared an interest and who recused. |
| Acting jointly | Every authorised trustee notified, participating and signing. | Resolutions signed by all trustees, notices of meeting, and Letters of Authority reflecting every serving trustee. |
| Separation of estates | Trust money and assets kept apart from your own, always. | A bank account in the trust's name, assets registered to the trust, and loan accounts formally documented rather than assumed. |
| Impartiality | Differences between beneficiaries must be reasoned, not arbitrary. | Distribution resolutions that state the reason for the decision: so an unequal distribution reads as considered discretion, not favouritism. |
| Care in managing assets | Preserve, insure and invest the trust property sensibly. | A recorded investment approach, periodic reviews of performance and cover, and written advice where specialists were consulted. |
| Accounting to beneficiaries | Be able to show what the trust owns, owes, received and paid. | Annual financial statements, a complete minute book, supporting vouchers, and records retained for five years after termination. |
| Adherence to the deed | Act only within the powers you actually have. | A signed, complete deed on file with every amendment and every set of Letters of Authority: read before decisions, not after they are challenged. |
| Statutory disclosure duties | Tell the Master and accountable institutions who stands behind the trust. | The beneficial-ownership register lodged and kept current, certified IDs, the record of accountable institutions, and FICA capacity disclosures. |
| Tax duties of the office | Vest income deliberately and report it accurately. | Year-end distribution resolutions signed before 28/29 February, the ITR12T filed, and IT3(t) data that reconciles to the resolutions. |
Read that table backwards and the point is obvious. The trustee who says "I run the trust properly, I just haven't got round to the minutes" is describing a contradiction. Without the minutes, the separate account, the statements and the register, there is no way to show the discretion was ever exercised: and a discretion that cannot be shown to have been exercised looks, to a court, exactly like a founder dealing with his own assets under a convenient name. Our job is to make sure that record exists before anyone asks for it. Yours is to keep making the decisions.
What it entails
This is the full recurring obligation set for a South African trust. Under an administration mandate, we carry the ones marked below and prompt you on the rest.
Trust Property Control Act s 11A
The register must record every beneficial owner: the founder, all trustees, all named beneficiaries and anyone exercising effective control: with certified identity documents, and be lodged on the Master's ICMS portal. It must be updated and refiled on any change.
We do: build it, keep certified IDs on file, refile within days of any change, and retain proof of every submission.
Common law · Trust deed · TPCA s 9
Trustees must act jointly and, unless the deed says otherwise, unanimously: and the decision must be recorded. Decisions taken informally, or written up afterwards, are exactly what a court points to when it is asked to find a trust is a sham.
We do: draft and circulate resolutions for every material decision, maintain the minute book, and chase signatures.
Income Tax Act s 25B · Trust deed
For the conduit principle to hold, income must be vested in or distributed to a beneficiary in the same tax year, resolved in writing, identifying the beneficiary, the amount and the source. Late or undocumented, and it is taxed in the trust at 45%.
We do: run a fixed January protocol so resolutions are signed before the end of February, every year.
Income Tax Act · Tax Administration Act
The trust's own annual income tax return, due whether or not the trust traded. Where distributions were made, the third-party IT3(t) reporting must reconcile to the trust's resolutions and to what the beneficiaries declare: a mismatch is a prime audit trigger.
We do: prepare and submit the ITR12T, and reconcile the distribution data before it goes.
Income Tax Act s 7C
Most trusts are funded by a loan from the founder rather than a donation. An interest-free or low-interest loan is treated as a deemed annual donation equal to the interest foregone, measured against the official rate: and it erodes the annual donations-tax exemption every year. Loan accounts are a top SARS audit target.
We do: reconcile the loan account annually, calculate the s 7C position, and flag the donations tax before it becomes a penalty.
TPCA s 10 & s 11
Trust money must pass through a bank account in the trust's name, and trust assets must be registered in the trust's name and identified as trust property. Commingling is the clearest route to the trust being disregarded.
We do: review this annually and raise it in writing the moment something looks blurred: before anyone else notices.
TPCA s 16 · Doyle v Board of Executors
Trustees owe beneficiaries a fiduciary duty and must be able to account for how the trust has been run. The Master can call for the file at any time, and non-production is an offence. That means the deed, Letters of Authority, resolutions, financials, register and certified IDs all retrievable.
We do: maintain the complete trust file and produce it on request, to you, the Master or a bank.
TPCA s 6 & s 7 · Good governance
A trustee joining, leaving or dying; a beneficiary added; an address changed; an asset acquired or sold. Each triggers its own updates: amended Letters of Authority, a refiled register, a revised bank mandate, updated SARS details: and each is void or defective if skipped.
We do: run an events checklist, so one phone call from you sets off the right filings.
Plans
Cancel any time, with the full trust file handed back to you. Every plan includes a named contact: not a general inbox: and an annual written compliance report to the trustees.
Most trusts
A family trust holding a property or investments, with straightforward affairs.
from R550/month
Adds the tax
A trust that distributes income, carries a founder's loan, or files returns each year.
Quote on Request
Full service
Where the Master or a bank requires an independent trustee, or a family business trust needs one.
Quote on Request
Pricing depends on what the trust actually does. A dormant trust holding one property is not the same job as a trust distributing to six beneficiaries and carrying a founder's loan. Essential starts at from R550/month; the other two are quoted once we've seen the deed and the current position. There is no charge for that assessment.
Being straight with you
An administration mandate is an ongoing compliance service. It is not a blank cheque, and it does not move control of your trust to us.
Included
Quoted separately
You remain the trustee. Unless you have specifically appointed us as independent trustee under the third plan, every decision about the trust: who receives what, when, and on what terms: remains the trustees'. We draft, file, calculate, diarise and advise. We do not exercise your discretion for you, and a service provider who offered to would be doing you no favours: a trustee who abdicates their discretion is the Parker problem all over again.
Getting started
Run the free 32-point diagnostic, or send us the deed and Letters of Authority and we'll run it. It tells us what state the trust is in.
A short report: what's compliant, what isn't, what it takes to catch up, and which plan fits. No charge, no obligation.
Where filings or returns are outstanding, those are brought up to date first, quoted separately and upfront.
One session to collect the file and the history. From then on the deadlines are ours to watch.
Already behind? That's the normal starting position, and it is not a reason to put the call off: the penalties accrue monthly while you wait. We catch the trust up first, then take over the running of it.
Good to know
No. You remain a trustee with exactly the powers the deed gives you, and every discretionary decision stays with the trustees. We prepare the paperwork that records those decisions and we carry the filing deadlines. The only plan that changes the composition of the board is the third one, where an admitted attorney is appointed as independent trustee: and even then the trustees act jointly, as the Act requires.
More than most trustees realise. Section 9(1) of the Trust Property Control Act holds you to the care, diligence and skill expected of someone managing another person's affairs, and section 9(2) makes any indemnity clause in the deed void to the extent it tries to protect you from falling short of that. Breach can mean personal liability for the trust's loss, a court order under section 19 compelling you to comply, removal from office by the Master or a court under section 20, and: for beneficial-ownership failures: a fine of up to R10 million or five years' imprisonment. The exposure is personal, not the trust's. Sound administration is how you discharge those duties and, just as importantly, how you prove you did.
Generally not. Accountants prepare financial statements and often file the ITR12T; what usually falls between the chairs is the legal side: the minuted resolutions, the beneficial-ownership register with the Master, the s 7C position on the founder's loan, and the trust file itself. We work alongside your accountant rather than replacing them, and on the Managed plan we liaise with them directly on the year-end. If they already handle the return, say so and we'll price around it.
A dormant trust still files a nil ITR12T and still has to be on the Master's beneficial-ownership record: dormancy only exempts you once it has been formally declared. So yes, there are still obligations, but they are lighter, and the honest answer may be that you should close the trust instead. Run the health check and we'll tell you which of the two makes financial sense. We would rather deregister a trust you don't need than bill you monthly to maintain it.
The deadlines we carry are diarised and tracked, and the annual report to trustees shows what was filed and when. Where something depends on you: a signature, a document, an instruction: we chase it in writing and the record shows that we did. Where an obligation is outside the mandate, the annual review flags it so it doesn't sit unnoticed.
Yes, on a calendar month's notice, and the complete trust file is handed back to you: deed, Letters of Authority, minute book, resolutions, register and correspondence. Nothing is held hostage. Work already done and billed is not refunded, but there is no lock-in period and no exit fee.
Because the obligations are continuous even where the filings cluster. The beneficial-ownership register has to be updated within days of a change, queries from banks and SARS arrive when they arrive, and the year-end resolutions only work if someone has been watching the calendar since March. Spreading it monthly also means the cost is predictable and the work isn't deferred to whenever an invoice can be afforded: which is how trusts fall behind in the first place.
lawvero is a legal document and compliance platform. We prepare documents, complete the Master's forms and manage filings. Reserved legal work is performed by admitted attorneys. Everything on this page is general information about South African law, not legal or tax advice on your circumstances.
lawvero provides legal document preparation and compliance services. Reserved legal work is performed by admitted attorneys. Nothing on this site is legal or tax advice on your specific circumstances. lawvero (Pty) Ltd · Reg 2026/679063/07 · © 2026 lawvero. All rights reserved. · Key law referred to on this page: Trust Property Control Act 57 of 1988 (ss 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 11A, 12, 16, 17, 19, 20); General Laws (AML/CTF) Amendment Act 22 of 2022; Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 (ss 7C, 25B); Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001. Case law referred to: Doyle v Board of Executors 1999 (2) SA 805 (C); Land and Agricultural Bank of SA v Parker 2005 (2) SA 77 (SCA); Sackville West v Nourse 1925 AD 516; Thorpe v Trittenwein 2007 (2) SA 172 (SCA). Penalty figures are maximums and current at the date of publication. The law and the Master's practice change: confirm the current position before relying on anything here.
Start here
The free health check takes about ten minutes and runs entirely in your browser. It will tell you which obligations are outstanding and how serious each one is: which is the right basis for deciding whether you need this service at all.