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A trust annual review checklist is a fixed set of questions you put to a trust once a year, so that a change in the seat's law, the family's residence or the banking environment is caught early rather than discovered in a crisis. The seat is the legal system and place where the trust is administered. It rarely changes by itself, but everything around it does.
This page focuses on the seat only: what to look at each year, in what order, and what a "yes" or "no" should trigger. It is general information, not advice. Many answers depend on residence, the beneficiaries' countries, the nature of the assets and the canton or country involved, which is why a review of an existing structure ends with an individual analysis.
Why review the seat every year
A trust deed can last for generations. The environment it sits in does not stay still. Legislatures amend trust statutes, regulators change who may act as a professional trustee, reporting regimes widen, and banks revise what they will accept from a given jurisdiction. A trust that was a sensible choice when it was settled may be a poor fit today without anyone having done anything wrong.
A yearly rhythm also keeps the exercise cheap and calm. Reviewing small changes as they happen is easier than unwinding several at once. If you want the broader decision logic behind the original choice, the guide on how to choose a trust jurisdiction sets out the criteria; the checklist below only tests whether those criteria still hold.
The order of the review
The sequence matters. Legal questions come first because they decide what is possible; practical questions follow because they decide what is workable.
The checklist
Tick each item only when you have evidence for it, not an impression.
- Confirm that the trust deed, its amendments and any letter of wishes are complete and filed in one place
- Check whether the governing law and the seat of administration are still the ones the deed names
- Note any change in the settlor's or beneficiaries' residence or citizenship during the year
- Verify that the countries where beneficiaries or assets sit still recognize trusts, or apply the Hague rules
- Ask whether the seat's trust statute, firewall provisions or perpetuity rules were amended
- Confirm that the trustee remains duly authorized and supervised where required
- List every register, filing and automatic-exchange obligation that applies, and confirm each was met
- Review the banks and custodians used, and whether any has signaled a change of appetite
- Check whether the structure still meets the local presence expected at the seat
- Look at sanctions lists, grey lists and reputational headlines touching the seat
- Re-test the protector's and the trustee's powers against how decisions were actually taken
- Write a short dated conclusion: keep, adjust, or prepare a move
Item by item
Law and recognition
Start with the deed and the law that governs it. The distinction between governing law and seat is a frequent source of confusion, and governing law versus seat of administration explains why the two can differ and why each matters. Then ask whether the legal environment around the trust has moved: a new statute, a court decision on reserved powers, or a change in how a forum treats claims by heirs.
Recognition deserves its own line. Switzerland signed the Hague Convention of 1 July 1985 on the law applicable to trusts and on their recognition on 3 April 2007, ratified it on 26 April 2007, and it entered into force for Switzerland on 1 July 2007. The Federal Office of Justice confirms that foreign trusts have been recognized in Switzerland since that date. The Convention is classified as RS 0.221.371. Recognition in the countries where the beneficiaries live is a separate question; the map of Hague parties helps, but a country that is not a party may still treat a trust in its own way.
Regulation and the trustee
Check whether the professional trustee is still authorized and supervised as the seat's rules require. In Switzerland this belongs to the FINMA framework under FinIA, together with a supervisory organization and anti-money-laundering duties under AMLA. In other seats the rules differ, and some are lighter. The comparison of regulated versus lightly regulated seats shows how much that difference can matter to a bank deciding whether to onboard the structure.
Reporting and privacy
Each year, list what must be filed or disclosed. Trust registers, beneficial-ownership filings and automatic exchange of information under the CRS (also called AEOI or EAR) can all touch the same structure, and the obligations shift as countries adjust their lists and definitions. Trust registers and privacy describes what is disclosed where. The point of the review is simple: nothing should be filed late, and nothing should surprise the family.
Banking and custody
Banking is where seat problems often appear first. A bank may restrict accounts for trusts from a particular place long before any law changes. Look at your own experience: slower onboarding, extra document requests, or a custodian that quietly exits a segment. If any of that happened, an existing offshore trust under banking pressure shows how such a situation tends to develop.
Substance and stability
Ask whether the seat still offers a credible local presence and whether its political and legal climate remains steady. The method in political and banking stability can be applied as a yearly scoring habit, using qualitative judgments rather than invented numbers. Economic substance and trusts covers the presence requirements that some seats impose.
What each answer should trigger
Most years the answer is "no change," and the output is a short dated note for the file. Occasionally an item points to adjustment: a protector clause revised, a custodian added, a filing corrected. Only rarely does the review suggest that the seat no longer fits. In that case the next reading is moving a trust between jurisdictions, and the practical preparation is covered under reviewing whether a trust still fits its seat.
A move is a legal act with consequences of its own, so it is never a reflex. The review exists to make the decision deliberate, documented and unhurried.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a trust be reviewed?
At least once a year, and also after a triggering event: the settlor or a main beneficiary changes residence, a bank changes its stance, the seat amends its trust law, or the seat appears on a sanctions or grey list. The yearly review is the baseline; events call for an earlier look.
Who should carry out the review?
The trustee will normally prepare the factual part, because it holds the records. An independent adviser who does not administer the trust can test the conclusions. The settlor, the protector and the beneficiaries' advisers should see the result, since each may hold information the trustee lacks.
Does a review mean the trust has to move?
No. In most years it confirms the existing arrangement. A move is considered only when several items point the same way, and then it is weighed against the legal and practical cost of moving, which depends on the deed, the assets and the countries involved.
Is a Swiss seat reviewed differently from an offshore one?
The questions are the same; the answers differ. Switzerland has no trust statute of its own and relies on recognition under the Hague Convention, so the review of a Swiss seat leans on recognition, FINMA-supervised trustee status and reporting duties. Switzerland as a trust seat sets out its strengths and limits.
What records should I keep from each review?
A dated note stating what was checked, which sources were consulted, which items changed, and what was decided and why. Keep it with the deed and amendments. Over several years this file becomes the evidence that the structure was monitored with care.
Can this checklist replace professional advice?
No. It organizes the questions; it does not answer them for your circumstances. Residence, the beneficiaries' countries, the type of assets and the canton or country concerned can each change the conclusion, so an individual analysis remains necessary.
Sources
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