Trusts & Estate Planning

A private discretionary trust is a legal arrangement where assets are held by trustees for the benefit of named beneficiaries. The trustees have discretion over when and how much to distribute. NRI families use it to protect wealth across generations, provide for minor or dependent beneficiaries, and prevent assets from being fragmented through multiple inheritance proceedings.

A Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is a separate legal and tax entity under Indian law available to Hindu, Jain, Sikh, and Buddhist families. It can hold property and generate income separately from individual family members. NRIs who are karta or coparceners of an HUF should be aware that FEMA rules apply to HUF assets and transactions involving NRI members require specific compliance.

Yes. Under Dayabhaga law, there is no automatic coparcenary interest in a father's property during his lifetime. This makes Will drafting and trust planning more straightforward in Bengal — the testator has full testamentary freedom over self-acquired and ancestral property. However, dying intestate can lead to fractured ownership among a larger class of heirs than under Mitakshara.

Yes. An NRI can be a trustee of an Indian private trust. However, FEMA rules govern any remittances into or out of the trust if the trustee is a non-resident. An NRI trustee should ensure that the trust deed contains clear provisions on succession of trusteeship to resident co-trustees to avoid operational difficulties.

A family constitution is a governance document that sets out rules for how a family manages its shared business and property interests — including decision-making rights, entry and exit of family members from the business, dispute resolution mechanisms, and distribution of dividends. For NRI-resident family combinations it manages governance tensions between family members operating in different legal jurisdictions.