Jamaica’s New Trusts Act Changes the Rules on Estate Planning. Here Is What to Know.

Kingston, Jamaica — 16 April 2025

Jamaica has passed a package of new legislation that overhauls the legal infrastructure for trusts and succession planning, bringing the country’s estate management framework into closer alignment with international standards. For property owners, investors, and families thinking about how to transfer wealth across generations, the changes are significant and overdue.

The New Trusts Act

The most consequential change for estate planners is the new Trusts Act, which replaces an older legislative framework that had been widely described as inadequate for the complexity of modern wealth planning. The new Act codifies for the first time the roles of protectors and enforcers within trust structures. A protector is a person appointed to oversee the trustee and ensure the trust is being administered in accordance with the settlor’s original intentions. An enforcer performs a similar function for purpose trusts, which are trusts created to achieve a specific objective rather than to benefit named individuals. These roles were previously recognised only under common law. Their statutory codification provides greater legal certainty and makes Jamaica’s trust framework more attractive to high-net-worth individuals and families seeking a stable jurisdiction for long-term wealth management.

For families with significant Jamaican property holdings or business interests, the ability to structure assets within a trust governed by clear, modernised legislation reduces risk and increases flexibility. A trust can ring-fence assets, specify the conditions under which they are distributed, continue across generations without triggering probate, and in some structures, reduce the death duties that would otherwise apply on transfer.

What It Means for Jamaican Property Owners

Real estate is the dominant asset in most Jamaican estates. When property is held personally, it passes through the deceased’s estate on death, triggering transfer tax, stamp duty, and the probate process. When property is held through a properly structured trust or company, those costs and delays may be reduced or avoided entirely, depending on the structure and the specific assets involved. The new Trusts Act makes Jamaica a more credible jurisdiction for establishing such structures, both for residents and for diaspora Jamaicans seeking to manage property holdings at home through legally robust arrangements.

The legislative package also includes the Segregated Accounts Companies Act, which allows a single legal entity to operate multiple accounts without the need to form several separate companies. For developers, investors, and businesses managing multiple properties or projects, this provides a more efficient corporate structure that can simplify both operations and estate planning.

The Broader Signal

Taken together, the legislative changes signal that Jamaica is actively working to modernise the legal environment for wealth management and succession planning. That is relevant not only for the country’s high-net-worth residents but for the diaspora, for foreign investors in Jamaican real estate, and for institutional investors whose confidence in a jurisdiction depends partly on the quality and predictability of its legal infrastructure. For individual families, the practical message is that the tools for estate planning in Jamaica are more sophisticated and more accessible than they were a year ago. The question, as always, is whether enough families will use them.

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