{"id":4058,"date":"2026-11-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/?p=4058"},"modified":"2026-11-02T11:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:03:30","slug":"pcc-and-purpose-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/publications\/pcc-and-purpose-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"PCC and purpose trust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Liechtenstein, a jurisdiction providing fiduciary services, is renowned for its liberal foundation and trust laws, both of which have a legal history stretching back 100 years. In 2015, the legislature expanded the range of Liechtenstein legal forms to include the Protected Cell Company (PCC), a special form of asset organisation. Furthermore, the reform of trust law completed this year has provided clearer regulations governing purpose trusts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let us begin with the PCC. It is not a separate legal form in its own right; rather, all legal forms provided for under Liechtenstein\u2019s Persons and Companies Act (PGR) may be established as a PCC. This requires entry in the Liechtenstein Commercial Register, upon which the PCC acquires separate legal personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How does a PCC function?<\/strong><br>Let us compare a PCC with an apartment building and its individual flats. The apartment building represents the core, whilst the individual flats represent the segments. Accordingly, the PCC comprises a core and one or more independent segments (also known as cells). The core comprises assets (the core assets) that are not allocated to individual segments. A segment constitutes a separate area in terms of assets and liabilities but does not have its own legal personality. Segments have their own areas of activity and their own assets. The core assets and the assets attribuable to each segment remain separate from one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PCC may pursue only one or more of the following purposes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Non-profit or charitable purposes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Exploitation of copyright, patents, trademarks, designs and models<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Acquisition, management and disposal of equity interests in other companies (subsidiaries)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deposit guarantee and investor compensation schemes in accordance with the applicable EEA legislation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Structural features<\/strong><br>The provisions applicable to the legal form chosen for the PCC shall apply to the minimum capital in relation to core assets. A statutory reserve equal to this minimum capital must be set aside for each segment. The governing body of a PCC (foundation council, board of directors, etc.) is also determined by the legal form chosen for the PCC. As the segments themselves do not have legal personality and do not have their own governing bodies, the governing body of a PCC is also responsible for representing the individual segments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A PCC enables liability to be segregated and allocated amongst the independent segment assets. A PCC allows a structure similar to that of a group of companies to be established without the need to set up multiple legal entities. Consequently, administrative costs are lower. The PCC is taxed in accordance with its chosen legal form; the individual segments are not liable for tax. If, for example, a foundation is chosen as the legal form for the PCC, the PCC is taxed in accordance with the tax regulations applicable to foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Conclusion PCC<\/strong><br>The PCC offers an alternative to the traditional charitable umbrella foundation. Smaller charitable projects are implemented through the PCC\u2019s governing body. These synergies result in significantly lower costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a view to transferring assets to future generations, each family member can be allocated their own segment. Assets from the core assets of a PCC can be transferred to the various segments in stages, according to value and asset class (securities, property, etc.). In this way, family businesses can be kept together whilst still being divided proportionally amongst the descendants. From a liability perspective, the shares remain separate as a result of the segmentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Purpose Trust<\/strong><br>Purpose trusts are trusts in which a key element of a traditional trust is missing: the beneficiaries. In their place is a sufficiently defined, lawful purpose. Due to the absence of beneficiaries, it is the responsibility of a trust enforcer to ensure that the rules of the purpose trust are adhered to and that the defined purpose is fulfilled. Purpose trusts may be established for charitable or private purposes. The provision concerning the person entitled to information, which has recently been incorporated into Liechtenstein trust law, also applies to purpose trusts. The person entitled to information is the trust enforcer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The purpose trust is suitable for business purposes, particularly for holding shares in family businesses via a Private Trust Company (PTC). The PTC acts as the trustee of an ordinary trust through which the shares in a family business are held. The shares in the PTC are, in turn, held by the trustee of the purpose trust. Under this structure, the shares in the family business do not form part of a settlor\u2019s estate. As there are no beneficiaries in a purpose trust, the trust cannot be terminated or amended by unanimous decision of the beneficiaries; the trust assets are preserved in the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/industrie-und-finanzkontor\/team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr. Johanna Niegel<\/a><\/strong><br>Relationship Manager, Head of Business Development<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liechtenstein, a jurisdiction providing fiduciary services, is renowned for its liberal foundation and trust laws, both of which have a legal history stretching back 100 years. In 2015, the legislature expanded the range of Liechtenstein legal forms to include the Protected Cell Company (PCC), a special form of asset organisation. Furthermore, the reform of trust\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,63,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industrie-und-finanzkontor-c","category-legal-entities","category-liechtenstein-financial-centre-c"],"acf":[],"permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4058"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4063,"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058\/revisions\/4063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iuf.li\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}