The Introduction of Foundations further reinforces Mauritius as a platform for wealth management, succession and estate planning. Endowed with legal personality, a Foundation is viewed as a combination of a Trust with certain characteristics of a regular company.

Basically, a foundation is established by a Founder who donates assets with which to achieve the objects of the foundation. The objects can be both charitable and non charitable, or both simultaneously, and can be either for the benefit of persons or class of persons or to carry out a specified purpose. The Founder’s intentions for the Foundation are set out in a charter to determine how the assets are to be dealt with, for what purpose or for whose benefit, although such objectives can be less specific provided the mechanism by which such decisions are to be made is clearly defined.

Foundations are usually used for asset protection, inheritance planning, wealth management, charitable purposes and general asset holding purposes.