Two obligations, two regulators
A structure that is well designed on paper still fails if it is run carelessly, and transparency is now a hard compliance pillar. Since South Africa’s anti-money-laundering reforms — the General Laws Amendment Act 22 of 2022 — both the trust and the company must keep registers of who really stands behind them. These are two separate obligations with two different regulators: the trust register goes to the Master of the High Court, and the company register goes to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).
Both must be in place and kept current. They sit alongside the structure’s tax filings — see SARS trust reporting (the IT3(t)) — and the company’s ordinary company-law housekeeping. If you are still setting the structure up, the register is one of the early steps in registering the trust.
The trust register at the Master (section 11A)
Trustees must establish, record, lodge and maintain a beneficial-ownership register for the trust with the Master’s Office. The obligation is set out in section 11A, which the General Laws Amendment Act 22 of 2022 inserted into the Trust Property Control Act:
(1) A trustee must— (a) establish and record the beneficial ownership of the trust; (b) keep a record of the prescribed information relating to the beneficial owners of the trust; (c) lodge a register of the prescribed information on the beneficial owners of the trust with the Master’s Office; and (d) ensure that the prescribed information … is kept up to date.
Note — Section 11A was inserted by the [General Laws Amendment Act 22 of 2022] as part of South Africa’s anti-money-laundering reforms.
Note the four verbs: establish, keep, lodge and keep up to date. It is not a once-off filing — when a trustee, a named beneficiary or a controller changes, the register must be updated.
Who is a beneficial owner of a trust
A trust’s beneficial owners are defined very widely. The register is not limited to the people who economically benefit — it reaches the founder, every trustee, anyone who controls the trust, and every beneficiary named in the trust instrument:
“beneficial owner” … means— (a) a natural person who directly or indirectly ultimately owns the relevant trust property; (b) a natural person who exercises effective control of the administration of the trust …; (c) each founder …; (d) each trustee …; and (e) each beneficiary referred to by name in the trust instrument …
Because the founder, trustees and named beneficiaries of a typical family trust are all natural persons in the same household, the register usually captures the whole family. That is the point of the reform — it removes the trust as a place to hide control.
The company register at CIPC
Separately, Newco must file its beneficial-ownership information with CIPC under the Companies Act and keep it current. This is a distinct filing from the trust register — different regulator, different system, different deadline.
The teeth here are practical rather than just penal: since 1 July 2024 a company cannot file its annual return unless its beneficial-ownership filing for that year is in place. A missed beneficial-ownership filing therefore stalls the annual return, which in turn puts the company at risk of deregistration.
Penalties and why this still bites
The transparency regime has real consequences. On the trust side, non-compliance with the Trust Property Control Act can attract a fine of up to R10 million or up to five years’ imprisonment, or both. On the company side, the blocked annual return since 1 July 2024 is itself a powerful sanction.
A common misconception is that the grey-listing exit ended these duties. It did not. South Africa exited the FATF grey list on 24 October 2025, but the beneficial-ownership obligations under both the Trust Property Control Act and the Companies Act remain fully in force — indeed, staying off the list depends on keeping them.
Frequently asked questions
It is a record of the natural persons who really stand behind a trust — its founder, every trustee, anyone who controls it, and every beneficiary named in the trust instrument. Since the General Laws Amendment Act 22 of 2022, section 11A of the Trust Property Control Act requires trustees to establish, keep and lodge this register with the Master of the High Court, and keep it up to date.
Under section 1 of the Trust Property Control Act, it is any natural person who ultimately owns the trust property, any natural person who exercises effective control of its administration, each founder, each trustee, and each beneficiary referred to by name in the trust instrument. The definition is deliberately wide so the register captures everyone with real influence.
Yes, if the structure has both a trust and a company. The trust register is lodged with the Master under section 11A of the Trust Property Control Act; the company register is filed separately with CIPC under the Companies Act. They are two obligations with two regulators. Since 1 July 2024 a company cannot file its annual return until its beneficial-ownership filing for that year is in place.
Non-compliance with the Trust Property Control Act can attract a fine of up to R10 million or up to five years’ imprisonment, or both. On the company side, a missing CIPC filing blocks the annual return since 1 July 2024, risking deregistration. South Africa exited the FATF grey list on 24 October 2025, but the obligations remain fully in force.
It is the provision inserted into the Trust Property Control Act by the General Laws Amendment Act 22 of 2022. It requires a trustee to establish and record the trust’s beneficial ownership, keep the prescribed information about the beneficial owners, lodge a register of it with the Master’s Office, and keep it up to date. It is the legal source of the trust register.