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Trust Law/Level VIII · Trusts of the world/8.2 Civil-law and religious systems/Lesson 1

The French fiducie

How the French fiducie, added to the Civil Code in 2007, moves assets into a separate patrimony held by a regulated fiduciaire for a set purpose, with strict rules on form, registration and gifts.

Education, not legal advice. Trust law changes from country to country and state to state, and the right structure depends on your situation. Anything you sign should be drafted or reviewed by a qualified lawyer where you live.

The lean path

The cheapest, lowest-tax, simplest and most private route the law allows, best first. Each step names the rule it rests on and the condition that keeps it lawful.

  1. For family transfers the fiducie is unavailable: one made with intent to give is void as a matter of public policy (Code civil art. 2013). Catch: use lifetime gifts and life insurance instead, each with its own allowance and reporting.
  2. Parent-to-child gifts: each child can receive €100,000 free of gift duty from each parent, renewed every 15 years. Catch: gifts from the same donor within the 15-year window are added together, so earlier gifts use up the allowance.
  3. Assurance-vie: for premiums paid before age 70, each beneficiary receives up to €152,500 free of the death levy, then 20% up to €700,000. Catch: premiums paid after 70 get only €30,500 exempt across all the insured’s contracts, so timing matters.
  4. For commercial or security use, a fiducie must name a regulated fiduciaire such as a bank, insurer or avocat (art. 2015) and be registered with the tax office within one month (art. 2019). Catch: an unregistered contract is void; duration cannot exceed 99 years.
  5. The fiducie register is kept by the tax administration and is not public. Catch: foreign trusts with a French-resident settlor or beneficiary, or French assets, file trust returns (CGI art. 1649 AB); undeclared assets face a levy at the top IFI rate (art. 990 J).

MaterialsArticles 2011 to 2030 of the French Civil Code (Code civil), free on legifrance.gouv.frLoi n° 2007-211 du 19 février 2007 instituant la fiducie, and the amendments made by loi n° 2008-776 du 4 août 2008 (LME), on legifrance.gouv.frDécret n° 2010-219 du 2 mars 2010, which created the national register of fiducies (registre national des fiducies), on legifrance.gouv.frLesson 1.2.6, on the fiducie and the German Treuhand, for comparison

Wonder

  1. How does the fiduciaire’s separate patrimony compare with the way an English trustee holds trust property apart from their own?
  2. Why might French law refuse to let a fiducie be used to make a gift?
  3. Why would a legislature limit who may act as fiduciaire?

Explore

  1. France created the fiducie by the Law of 19 February 2007 (Loi n° 2007-211), which added Articles 2011 to 2030 to the Civil Code. Under Article 2011, one or more constituants transfer assets, rights or security interests to one or more fiduciaires, who hold them apart from their own property and act for a set purpose for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries. The fiducie arises from statute or contract and must be express. This lesson builds on lesson 1.2.6 and describes the device without recommending it.
  2. The transferred assets form a separate patrimony (patrimoine fiduciaire) in the fiduciaire’s hands. Under Articles 2024 and 2025, insolvency proceedings against the fiduciaire do not affect this patrimony, and it can generally be seized only by creditors whose claims arise from keeping or managing it. If it proves insufficient for those claims, the constituant’s own assets serve as the fallback unless the contract places the shortfall elsewhere. The constituant or the fiduciaire may also be a beneficiary.
  3. Who may act as fiduciaire is limited (Article 2015). The 2007 law allowed credit institutions, investment firms, portfolio management companies, insurers and certain public bodies such as the Caisse des dépôts. The Law of 4 August 2008 (LME) added lawyers (avocats), and an ordonnance of 30 January 2009 set the conditions for them, such as insurance. The same 2008 law let individuals act as constituants, where the 2007 version had allowed only companies subject to corporate tax.
  4. Form is strict. Under Article 2018 the contract must state, on pain of nullity, the assets transferred, the duration, the identity of the constituants, fiduciaires and beneficiaries (or rules for naming them), and the fiduciaire’s mission and powers. The maximum duration was 33 years in 2007 and has been 99 years since the 2008 law. Under Article 2019 the contract must be registered with the tax office within one month, or it is void; transfers of land must also be published at the land registry.
  5. Article 2020 provides for a national register of fiducies, created by a decree of 2 March 2010 and kept by the tax administration (DGFiP), not by the Ministry of Justice. It is not open to the public; access is limited to authorities and, since 2020 anti-money-laundering rules, to certain parties on request. A fiducie can also serve as security, the fiducie-sûreté, with specific rules elsewhere in the Civil Code for movable and immovable assets. In practice the fiducie is used mainly in commercial and financing settings.
  6. Article 2013 provides that a fiducie contract is void if it proceeds from an intention to make a gift (intention libérale) to the beneficiary, and that this nullity is a matter of public policy. This matches lesson 1.2.6: the fiducie cannot be used as a vehicle for gifts or inheritance planning, which French law handles through other rules. The fiducie is therefore narrower than a common-law trust and reflects French law’s own choices about property and succession.

Key facts

  • France created the fiducie by the Law of 19 February 2007, adding Articles 2011 to 2030 to the Civil Code.
  • Assets in a fiducie form a separate patrimony that the fiduciaire’s personal creditors and insolvency generally cannot reach (Articles 2024 and 2025).
  • Fiduciaires are limited to regulated institutions such as banks, investment firms and insurers, plus avocats, who were added by the Law of 4 August 2008 (Article 2015).
  • A fiducie contract must contain the details listed in Article 2018 and be registered with the tax office within one month (Article 2019), or it is void.
  • The national register of fiducies, created in 2010, is kept by the tax administration and is not public.
  • A fiducie made with intent to make a gift to the beneficiary is void, and the nullity is a matter of public policy (Article 2013).

Exercise nine, six, three, one

9CollectList up to 9 features of the French fiducie described in this lesson or in a French source you are reading (some sources give fewer), such as who may be fiduciaire, what the contract must contain, how long it may last and how it is registered.
6ClusterSort them into 6 categories: the parties, the separate patrimony, formal requirements, registration, limits on use, and facts you are unsure about.
3DistillReduce the 6 categories to 3 groups: features that resemble a common-law trust, features that differ from one, and features that protect third parties.
1CrystallizeWrite 1 sentence explaining, in your own words, how the fiducie separates assets without splitting ownership the way an English trust does.

Fact check

Dates, figures and claims checked against the published sources listed below.

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PT ES ZH JA KO RU DE FR MS