Trustee
And Fiduciary

In principle, a trust is a legal arrangement through which one person transfers the legal ownership of property to another to hold that property for the benefit of someone else. In this sense, there are three players in the trust relationship: trustor (a person transferring his/her property over for the benefit of the third party), trustee (a person to whom the trustor entrusts the property), and beneficiary (the person whom the property is to benefit). The trustee holds legal title and is responsible for managing and investing the trust property for the beneficiary in accordance with Trust Deed entered into between trustor and trustee.

Depending on individual circumstance, trust might be established in order to provide for those who would not otherwise be capable of owning property on their own behalf, for example, for a reason of their incapacity. Therefore, a trustee may act as a legal representative for trustor to hold the property ownership on his/her behalf. Further, trust can provide a centralized property management structure for trustor who are not in a position to manage property themselves, thus they can ensure that their property is taken care of when they are not around. Interestingly, trust is utilized in business structuring for investors in Collective Investment Scheme. Unit trust is an example of utilization of trust as investment vehicles, in which trustee safeguards securities, properties and assets of the trust fund on behalf of unitholder who are the beneficiary of the unit trust.

There are four types of trust defined based on trust purposes: (i) Commercial Trust is a trust created with the purpose of gaining profit for the benefits of trustor or any specified individual determined by such trustor. The commercial trust may include pension, education foundation, depositary services, or employee stock option plan. (ii) Public Trust is created for the benefits of Cambodian people in general which include the development of a bank or micro-finance, or for other public benefits whereby the relevant trust regulator appoints any trustee to safeguard the trust fund pursuant to the trust deed. (iii) Social Trusts is created when a trustor donates his/her property to a trustee for the benefits of society, with the purposes of culture, education, humanitarian, religion or science. (iv) Personal Trust is created for the benefits of trustor or specified individual whereby trustor is individual who donates his/her property or fund to trustee for the benefit of his/her own or someone else, or the transfer of trustor’s property/fund.

A trust may be created by a trustor or by legal provisions. In event a trust is created by trustor, the trustor needs to transfer his/her property/fund to trustee through Trust Deed. Trust Deed, as its name would suggest, refers to a legal instrument stipulating in great detail as to how the trust is created, administered, managed and terminated. The trust deed must meet the minimum content requirements set out by law, and spell out the trust purposes and identity of beneficiary. In order to be valid by law, trust has to be registered with the Trust Regulator within 3 months following creation of such trust.

A trust may be terminated at a time, or at trustor’s discretion, or by court order, or upon an event specified in the trust deed.

Under Cambodian Trust Law, the term of trust cannot exceed 100 years.

Trust has to be registered with the Trust Regulator. The Trust Regulator is the competent authority to regulate and supervise transactions in trust sector. By law, trust assets must be kept separate from trustee’s own assets or all other assets and in trust for the purpose for which it was paid. They cannot be loaned out, or used to pay off to its creditors. For a better safeguard, trustee is required to have proper records of assets, debt, income, expenses, or any benefits generated from trust asset in a prescribed format regulated by the Trust Regulator.