Trust beneficial ownership register

What is included

• Every beneficial owner identified from the deed and the letters of authority: the founder, each trustee, each named beneficiary, and anyone who controls the trust from outside it
• Company or trust shareholders and beneficiaries traced through to the natural persons behind them
• The Master’s register template completed with the details it asks for, checked against the identity documents
• The register lodged on the Master’s Trust Beneficial Ownership Register online system, and the confirmation saved in your portal
• A trustee file note on the records section 11A obliges the trustees to keep, including the certified identity copies
• A change protocol sheet: what to send us when a trustee, beneficiary or controller changes, and what it costs

Why it matters now

The duty comes from section 11A of the Trust Property Control Act 57 of 1988, inserted by the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022. A trustee who fails to record the information or fails to lodge the register commits an offence, and the amended Act provides for a fine of up to R10 million, imprisonment of up to five years, or both.

The register is not public. It is available to SARS, the Financial Intelligence Centre and the prosecuting authorities. The practical pressure comes from somewhere else: banks, attorneys, estate agents and other accountable institutions must establish who the beneficial owners of a trust are before they deal with it, and they ask for the Master’s register as proof. A trust that cannot produce it stalls at the bank.

Who is on the register. The Act names the founder, every trustee, every beneficiary referred to by name in the deed, and any natural person who directly or indirectly owns the trust property or exercises effective control over the trust. Every entry must be a natural person identified by name, so where a company or another trust is a trustee or beneficiary, the register looks through it to the people behind it.

How ordering works

1. Order online and send us the trust deed, the letters of authority and the details of everyone named in them.
2. We identify every beneficial owner, complete the Master’s template and send it to the trustees to confirm within 2 business days.
3. We lodge it on the Master’s online system and place the confirmation and your trustee file note in the portal.

Not sure this is the right one for you? Ask us first and you get a written answer within one business day.

What we will need from you

The Master lodges nothing on paper and accepts only its own template, so the work is getting every person and every detail right before it is uploaded.

• The trust deed and any amendments, so the founder, the trustees, the named beneficiaries and any power to control the trust can be read from the source.
• The letters of authority issued by the Master, which carry the trust number and the Master’s office the trust is registered at.
• For the founder, every trustee and every named beneficiary, the details the Master’s template asks for: full names, identity or passport number, date of birth, nationality, residential address and contact details, and their role in the trust.
• Certified identity or passport copies of each of them. The trustees are required to keep these on file, and we check the register against them.
• Where a trustee or beneficiary is a company or another trust, the documents that trace through to the natural persons: share registers, that trust’s deed, letters of authority.
• A resolution or mandate from the trustees authorising us to lodge on their behalf, which we send you to sign.
• An email address and cellphone number for one trustee, for the Master’s online system.

Frequently asked questions