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Transparent from the start
See the scope, professional fees, ongoing costs and third-party charges before you commit. Know what is included and who is responsible.
Estate planning, across borders
What you’ve built.
What comes next.
Your people. Your assets. Your intentions.
Bring them together in a clearer plan for the future.
No account required · Begin at your own pace
01 / ConnectionsYour people
02 / DirectionYour intentions
03 / ContinuityYour assets
The life you’ve built. A future considered.
A thoughtful first step
A little clarity.
A lasting difference.
Turn complex estate, asset-protection, and cross-border questions into a clear starting brief. Understand your options before deciding what comes next.
Your planning overviewEverything starts with you.
- 01People & responsibilities
- 02Assets & country connections
- 03Intentions & next questions
Organise your thoughts. Prepare for advice.
Plan with perspective.Family successionBusiness continuityCross-border estatesClear responsibilities
Why EstateGlobal exists
Specialist expertise.
A simpler way forward.
We combine technology with specialist estate-planning lawyers and trust experts to make analysing, forming and maintaining trust structures more cost-effective, transparent and efficient. Our focus: helping you protect your assets and provide for your family, with less paperwork, repetition and uncertainty.
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Efficient by design
Structured online intake and an organised workflow reduce repeated questions and administration, so specialist time goes towards decisions that matter.
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Security-minded
We ask for only what is needed at each stage and keep sensitive details out of the public-facing planning tools.
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Expert where it matters
Estate-planning lawyers and trust specialists provide the judgement, drafting and review. Tax planning is scoped with appropriately qualified advisers.
01 · Analyse
Start with the right questions.
Review your family priorities, assets and country connections. Define the legal and tax questions before choosing a structure.
02 · Form
Put the plan into practice.
Coordinate specialist drafting, tax planning and formation through an agreed professional engagement, with clear roles and fees.
03 · Maintain
Keep the structure working.
Agree ongoing trustee, administration and review needs, with responsibilities and recurring costs set out from the start.
Trust or foundation?
The difference,
in plain English.
They can pursue similar estate-planning goals, but their legal architecture—and your experience of managing them—are different.
Trust
How it works
A trust is a legal relationship rooted in common-law systems. A trustee holds and manages assets under a trust deed for beneficiaries or an agreed purpose.
What matters to you
The trustee, the deed, and fiduciary duties sit at the centre. You need confidence in who will make decisions, how they are supervised, and what powers you retain.
Foundation
How it works
A foundation is a separate legal entity, a form especially familiar in civil-law systems. The foundation owns its assets and a council governs it under its charter and regulations.
What matters to you
It can feel more like an organisation with a constitution and board. Council membership, oversight, beneficiary rules, and succession between decision-makers become central.
Choosing well
There is no automatic winner
Neither structure is inherently safer, cheaper, or more tax-efficient. The answer depends on your family, assets, objectives, and comfort with the governance model.
The cross-border test
Ask how every country connected to you will recognise, tax, and report it. Historical common-law or civil-law roots are useful context—not a substitute for current local advice.
The practical questions are simple: who owns the assets, who makes decisions, which document controls those decisions, and how will the structure be treated where you live?
A longer view
Leave more than assets.
Leave a clear intention.
Good preparation makes room for the people, responsibilities, and decisions that will outlast any one document.
The EstateGlobal network
Explore the place.
Understand the structure.
12 focused guides. Each one helps you prepare the right questions, understand the responsibilities, and take a considered next step.
Foundation
Panama
Foundation governance & succession
panamafoundation.appTrust
Nevis
International trust planning
nevistrust.appTrust
Cook Islands
Trustee-led international planning
cookislandstrust.appTrust
Wyoming
Family governance & administration
wyomingtrust.appTrust
Nevada
Spendthrift & succession questions
nevadatrust.appTrust
Delaware
Trust administration & oversight
delawaretrust.appTrust
South Dakota
Multigenerational governance
sdakotatrust.appTrust
British Virgin Islands
Business ownership & succession
bvitrust.appTrust
The Bahamas
Family benefits & trustee selection
bahamastrust.appTrust
Jersey
Trustee duties & reserved powers
jerseytrust.appTrust
Guernsey
Fiduciary oversight & continuity
guernseytrust.appTrust
Cayman Islands
Purpose, ownership & trustee oversight
caymantrust.appNo jurisdictions match that search. Try another name or select “All jurisdictions.”
From intention to a considered decision
Three steps.
A more useful conversation.
Begin with a free planning brief. Decide what help you need once the questions are clear.
01
Clarify what matters
Choose your main priority and explore a jurisdiction, or keep your options open.
02
Prepare your brief
Organise your intentions, decision-makers, existing documents, and cross-border questions.
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Scope the right advice
Ask the team about next steps. Any paid advice, formation, or administration needs an agreed scope and fee before work begins.
Clear scope. Clear price.
Know the cost before
the work begins.
Once we have the information needed to understand your situation, we provide a transparent, fixed-price quote for the agreed scope. You choose whether to proceed.
Start with the free brief →01
Share the essentials
Begin with the free planning brief. We then request only the information needed to define the work.
02
Receive a written quote
We set out the scope, fixed professional fee, assumptions, and any government or third-party costs separately.
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Choose your service level
Select an efficient standard process or a more bespoke, higher-touch engagement for complex needs.
Streamlined service
Expert-led. Technology-enabled.
For straightforward matters, structured intake and coordinated specialist review reduce repetitive work. Formation, drafting and tax planning are defined in the written scope, with an itemised quote before paid work begins. The aim is lower administrative cost and a clearer experience from the outset.
Bespoke service
More complexity. More human attention.
If you need custom drafting, multi-country coordination, unusual governance, or closer adviser access, our experts can prepare a tailored scope at a higher cost with a higher-touch service.
Published cost examples
A clearer view of trust costs.
Two providers’ published Cook Islands trust fees give a concrete reference point. These are provider examples, not a market average or an EstateGlobal quote.
Alper Law · Trust only
~US$21,000
To establish, including the first-year trustee fee
~US$5,000 / year from year two
Published estimate includes legal setup and the first-year trustee fee. Tax compliance and banking costs are separate.
Read Alper Law’s fee breakdownBlake Harris Law · Cook Islands trust
US$25,000
Establishment fee for the published scope
US$7,000 / year for routine services
Published fees cover legal, trustee and protector services within the stated scope. CPA filings, litigation and major changes cost extra.
Read Blake Harris Law’s fee breakdownSources checked 13 September 2026. Fees may change. These examples do not establish the cost of a matching formation, drafting and tax-planning package. Compare the jurisdiction, complexity, included advice and ongoing services before comparing prices.
The EstateGlobal approach
Less repetition. Clearer fees.
Specialist attention where it matters.
Start with your needs. Receive a written scope and fixed quote, with formation, drafting, tax planning and ongoing services clearly identified as included or separately priced.
Every matter is different. A fixed quote is provided only after scope review; legal, tax, fiduciary, government, and third-party fees are identified separately where applicable.
Useful answers
Before you
take the next step.
Will this tell me which structure to set up?
It gives you a starting brief and questions to discuss—not a recommendation or a legal or tax conclusion. The right answer may be a trust, a foundation, changes to your existing estate plan, or no new structure at all.
What is the practical difference between a trust and a foundation?
A trust is generally a legal relationship rooted in common law: a trustee holds and manages assets under a trust deed for beneficiaries or a purpose. A foundation is a separate legal entity, a form more familiar in civil-law systems: it owns its assets and is governed by a council under a charter and regulations. For you, the important differences are ownership, decision-making, governing documents, and how every relevant country recognises, taxes, and reports the arrangement. Neither is automatically better.
How does pricing work?
The guides and first planning brief are free. Once we have enough information to understand the scope, we provide a transparent fixed-price quote before paid work begins. Our technology-assisted process is designed to reduce repetitive administration and make specialist work more cost-effective. Formation, drafting, tax planning and ongoing maintenance are priced for the agreed scope; there is no universal fee or guaranteed saving. Bespoke drafting, complex cross-border coordination, or higher-touch support is scoped separately, and applicable government and third-party fees are itemised.
Do I have to provide financial information?
You can begin with broad descriptions and leave details to complete later. The planner includes people, assets, ownership and country connections, with optional values and further detail. Avoid account numbers, passwords and sensitive documents. Your answers are not submitted to a server; sharing a downloaded brief with an adviser is your choice.
Can I keep my progress?
Yes. Choose “Save on this device” in the planner to keep a copy in this browser. You can also download a planning file and import it later, or export a text or printable adviser brief. Saving is optional, and you can remove the saved device copy. Different domains have separate browser storage.
A clearer plan starts with a question.
What do you want the next chapter to look like?