Building a Legacy: Trusts for Wealth Preservation and Succession Planning in Nigeria

With founder-led businesses approaching generational transition, assets increasingly held across borders, and the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 sharpening the focus on taxation and transparency, trusts are fast becoming governance structures for continuity rather than instruments of estate planning alone.  

The article sets out the principal structures (inter vivos, testamentary, family and offshore trusts) and how each sits alongside wills, holding companies and shareholders’ agreements. It addresses the limits that family property, customary law and Islamic law place on what can be settled, the legal, tax and regulatory requirements of establishing and funding a trust, and the pitfalls that erode its value over time. It also considers when a simpler arrangement is the better course.