A trust is a legal institution whereby a person (‘settlor’) transfers assets to another person (‘trustee’) obligating the trustee on a fiduciary basis to abide by his or her wishes set forth in the trust deed as to the administration and management of the assets in the interest of a third party (“beneficiary”) or for the accomplishment of a specific purpose (‘purpose trust’). The entrustment of the assets is implemented by the transfer of ownership from the settlor to the trustee who becomes the legal and full owner of the assets, until the completion of its mission coinciding with the expiry of the trust. The exercise of the right of ownership over the transferred assets is limited to the pursuit of the purposes specified in the trust instrument by the settlor. The trustee executes the settlor’s wishes in accordance with the rules set out in the trust deed. All types of assets can be transferred in trusts, such as: real estate (houses), movable property registered in public registers (cars, boats), sums of money (investments), credits, government bonds, company shares, works of art.

Assets transferred in trust constitute a segregated fund with respect to the settlor’s assets and the trustee’s assets and for this reason cannot be attacked by the respective creditors. Our country was one of the first to sign the “Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and their Recognition” of The Hague in 1985, and to ratify it with Law No. 364 of 1989. The doctrinal and jurisprudential elaboration that followed confirmed the full legitimacy of the establishment of so-called internal trusts. These are trusts characterised by the fact that the settlor, the beneficiaries, the trustee and the trust property are Italian, while the governing law is that of one of the many foreign states that regulate trusts.