For internationally connected families hesitant to cede full control to a trustee, a Private Trust Company offers a governed alternative. This guide explains how Gibraltar PTCs are formed under the 2015 Act, how board composition and ownership structures work in practice, and what advisers should weigh up before recommending one.
August 18, 2026
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6
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Written and reviewed by: Laura Fuhr, Head of Trust and Company Management, and Oliver Andlaw, Managing Director, Acquarius.
Acquarius is licensed by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to act as trustee and company manager.
Most clients who establish a trust must accept a specific trade-off: legal ownership of the settled assets passes to the trustee, and with it, a significant degree of control. For some clients, particularly those with complex or significant assets ceding control entirely to a third-party trustee can be a genuine obstacle to using a trust at all, however well suited the structure is to their succession and asset protection needs.
The Private Trust Company offers a way to address that hesitation without abandoning the trust structure. By allowing family members and trusted advisers to sit on the board of the corporate trustee itself, a PTC gives a family a defined, governed route to involvement in decision-making that a standard discretionary trust administered solely by a professional trustee does not offer.
This guide is written for private client lawyers, tax advisers, TEPs and family offices considering a PTC for an internationally connected family, either as part of a new structure or as a review of an existing arrangement. It sets out how Gibraltar PTCs are formed, governed and owned, and where the practical risks tend to sit. As with any structure, independent legal and tax advice should be obtained in each relevant jurisdiction before establishment.
A PTC is established with the sole purpose of acting as corporate trustee to a trust, or to a number of trusts, provided those trusts are connected. In substance, it is a privately owned corporate trustee, distinct from a professional trust company that offers trustee services commercially to unrelated clients.
The PTC has become a widely used vehicle for wealthy families for several reasons. It can be established relatively quickly and offers greater structural flexibility and enhanced governance. Though with higher setup and ongoing costs than a standard professional trustee arrangement, properly structured, it can collapse multi-layered sign-off, governance and fee structures, often resulting in greater efficiencies and a lower total structural cost. Furthermore, it protects confidentiality, gives family members a defined framework for involvement in decision-making through board membership, and, when paired with a purpose trust, avoids the succession complications that can arise on the death of an individual owner.
The Gibraltar legislation governing PTCs is the Private Trust Companies Act 2015. PTCs must also comply with the general requirements of the Companies Act 2014.
Professional trustee services are generally regulated in Gibraltar by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. Under the 2015 Act, however, a PTC does not require licensing in its own right, provided it meets a defined set of conditions:
The company's name may include the words Private Trust Company or the letters PTC, though this is not compulsory. Incorporation itself follows the standard route for a Gibraltar private company, using a memorandum and articles of association.
The licensing exemption often attracts advisers to the structure, but it should not be mistaken for an absence of regulatory oversight. The requirement for administration by a licensed trustee or company manager means a regulated professional remains embedded in the structure, even though the PTC itself sits outside direct licensing.
Connected trust business refers to trust business where the contributors of funds to the trusts are all connected persons. The Act defines a connected person broadly, considering the degree of family connection and connections arising through groups of companies.
Where there is any doubt as to whether contributors are properly connected, specific legal and tax advice should be obtained before establishment. Getting this assessment wrong at the outset can undermine the PTC's exempt status entirely, so treat it as a threshold question rather than a formality.
Board composition is arguably the most consequential design decision in a PTC structure, more so than the choice of ownership vehicle. The board is flexible and may include family members, trusted advisers and Gibraltar-resident professionals.
When settling on board composition, the family or settlor needs to balance the desire for direct influence against regulatory and tax considerations. In particular, the tax residency of the PTC, and potentially of the underlying trusts, may be influenced by where central management and control is actually exercised. Careful attention to the residency of directors and the physical location of board meetings is needed to keep the PTC tax-resident in Gibraltar and to avoid inadvertently creating tax exposure elsewhere.
Where family members sit on the board, conflicts of interest need to be managed properly through the PTC's constitutional documentation, including restrictions on voting where a director has a personal conflict on a particular decision.
A trust or company manager licensed by the GFSC must administer the PTC, though it is not a legal requirement for that licensee to hold a board seat. In practice, many families take comfort from having an experienced fiduciary on the board regardless, and given the wider regulatory environment, licensed administrators will often seek a board position themselves to ensure appropriate information flow and oversight. A Gibraltar-licensed trustee can typically provide experienced resident directors with backgrounds across accounting, finance, banking and law, who complement family involvement rather than displace it.
Several ownership structures are possible for a PTC, and the right choice depends on the family's objectives, tax profile and succession planning requirements.
An individual, typically the settlor or a family member, can own shares in the PTC directly. In practice, direct ownership is generally discouraged, because of succession and probate risks on death, potential inheritance or estate tax exposure, creditor and asset protection concerns, and undesirable tax and disclosure implications in the owner's home jurisdiction.
To address those issues, PTCs are commonly structured as orphan vehicles, with a non-charitable purpose trust holding the shares rather than any individual. This removes ownership from any single person, provides continuity regardless of what happens to the settlor or family members individually, and avoids the succession complications that direct ownership creates. The purpose trust appoints an enforcer, whose role is to ensure the trust's purposes are carried out in accordance with the trust deed. Purpose trust ownership is widely regarded as best practice for family PTC structures.
Alternatively, a Gibraltar foundation may be established to hold the shares in a PTC. A foundation is not owned by its founder or by any other person, and can provide similar orphaning and continuity benefits to a purpose trust. The choice between a purpose trust and a foundation is usually driven by the family's familiarity with each concept, particularly where civil law family members are more comfortable with the foundation model, and by wider succession planning considerations.
A PTC does not generally hold assets directly. Instead, it acts as trustee of the relevant trust or trusts, which in turn hold assets either directly or through underlying holding companies and special purpose vehicles. The use of holding companies or SPVs beneath the trust can provide liability segregation, enhanced confidentiality, administrative and regulatory efficiency, and greater flexibility where assets are located across multiple jurisdictions.
In more complex structures, a separate service company is sometimes established to provide administrative, accounting and operational support to the wider trust structure. This can improve efficiency and segregate operational risk, particularly where multiple assets or jurisdictions are involved.
A typical structure, in outline, therefore involves: a purpose trust owning the PTC and appointing an enforcer; the PTC acting as trustee of the family trust, with a board combining family members, family advisers and a licensed Gibraltar fiduciary; and the trust holding assets through one or more underlying holding companies, which may themselves sit beneath an optional service company. Each layer serves a specific governance or administrative purpose rather than adding structural complexity for its own sake, and advisers should be able to explain, layer by layer, why each entity in the diagram is there.
A PTC typically involves higher establishment and ongoing costs than a standard trust administered by a professional trustee. Many families consider the enhanced control, governance and continuity a PTC offers to justify the additional expense, but this judgement should be made explicitly rather than assumed. Coupled with this, it is often the case in larger, more complex structures, the whole cost of fees is easily ignored.
A PTC can often collapse duplication of both structural costs and professional fees, creating efficiencies and whole-of-structure cost savings. For smaller trust structures, or families who are comfortable ceding full control to a professional trustee, a standard trust arrangement may achieve the same succession and asset protection objectives at lower cost.
This structure is most relevant to advisers working with internationally connected families who want a governed route to involvement in trust decision-making, particularly where ceding full control to a third-party trustee is not desired or appropriate. It is also relevant where a family's asset base spans multiple jurisdictions or multiple related trusts that would benefit from harmonised trusteeship.
Before recommending a PTC, advisers should consider whether the family's asset base and governance appetite genuinely justify the additional establishment and ongoing cost relative to a standard trust, who within the family is realistically able and willing to serve on the board, how conflicts of interest between family board members will be managed in practice, and where the PTC and its underlying trusts will be centrally managed and controlled, given the tax residency implications.
Key takeaways
Acquarius has extensive experience supporting advisers and clients through the establishment and ongoing administration of Private Trust Companies in Gibraltar. The firm works alongside a family's legal and tax advisers to provide the Gibraltar component of the structure, including administration, governance support and, where required, experienced Gibraltar-resident directors.
To discuss how a PTC may operate within a wider fiduciary structure, or to request a jurisdictional briefing, please contact the Acquarius team directly.
Email: enquiries@acquarius.gi Telephone: +350 200 50418
A Private Trust Company is a company established for the sole purpose of acting as corporate trustee to a group of connected trusts. It is a privately owned corporate trustee, rather than a professional trust company offering services commercially to the public.
No, provided it meets the statutory conditions under the Private Trust Companies Act 2015, including that the trusts it serves are all connected and that it is not remunerated for its services. Its administration must still be carried out by a Gibraltar-licensed trustee or company manager.
It refers to trust business where the contributors of funds to the trusts are all connected persons, assessed by reference to family connection and connections through groups of companies. Where there is any doubt, specific legal and tax advice should be obtained before establishment.
The board is flexible and may include family members, trusted advisers and Gibraltar-resident professionals. A licensed trustee or company manager must carry out the PTC's administration, though it is not a legal requirement for that licensee to hold a board seat.
Direct individual ownership is generally discouraged because of succession, probate, inheritance tax and creditor protection concerns. Ownership via a non-charitable purpose trust or a Gibraltar foundation is more commonly used and is regarded as best practice for family PTC structures.
No. A PTC acts as trustee of the relevant trust or trusts, which hold assets either directly or through underlying holding companies and special purpose vehicles.
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