Fintura Trust Register integration
Look up a trust on the Department of Justice register, held by the Master of the High Court, and bring its trustees onto a Fintura client without typing them in.
What is the Fintura Trust Register integration?
Fintura connects to the Trust Register so a South African trust can be looked up, its trustees pulled onto a Fintura client and, once its ownership register is built, its beneficial ownership submitted to the DOJ. The register is the Department of Justice record held by the Master of the High Court, which is where South African trusts are registered.
The scope is deliberately narrow: the trust and its trustees come in so that onboarding starts as a review rather than a page of typing, and the beneficial ownership submission is the one thing that goes back.
What syncs, and in which direction
Every row is what the Trust Register connection does today.
| Data | Direction | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust lookup | Trust Register to Fintura | When you search the register | Fintura searches the Department of Justice trust register and returns the matching trust for you to confirm. |
| Trustees | Trust Register to Fintura | On import | The trust's trustees are written onto the Fintura client, so the trustee list is not captured by hand. |
| The client record | In Fintura | On import | The trust is created as a client with its trustees already attached, ready for the rest of onboarding. |
| Trusts on an imported client list | In Fintura | When you import a client list | A trust imports from the Trust template with everything else, and it is not part of the CIPC enrichment that follows a company import, because CIPC does not hold trusts. |
| Beneficial ownership submission | Fintura to Trust Register | When you submit the trust's ownership register | Once the trust's beneficial ownership register is built in Fintura, with its trustees imported from the DOJ, the submission goes to the DOJ through the same connection. |
How you would use it
Add the trust as a client
Clients, then Add Client, and choose Trust as the entity type. The search runs against the Trust Register rather than CIPC, because CIPC holds companies and close corporations and not trusts.
Find it on the register
Search the Department of Justice register, which the Master of the High Court holds, and confirm you have the right trust before anything is written to your client list.
Bring the trustees across
The trustees come onto the client with the trust, so the trustee list is already there when you carry on with the rest of onboarding.
Carry on as normal
From there the trust is an ordinary Fintura client, with the same deadlines, services and documents as any company on your book.
What it does not do
- Does not pull the trust deed or any amendment to it. The lookup returns the trust and its trustees.
- Does not pull beneficiaries. Trustees come across and nothing else about the people behind the trust does.
- Does not retrieve letters of authority or any other document from the Master of the High Court.
- Does not register a new trust with the Master of the High Court, and sends nothing back except the trust's beneficial ownership submission.
- Does not watch the register. Nothing tells Fintura when a trustee changes.
- Does not enrich a trust from CIPC. CIPC holds companies and close corporations, so a trust has nothing to match against there.
Frequently asked questions.
What South African firms ask about Trust Register in Fintura.
Yes. Trustees come in from the register when you add a trust, and the trust's beneficial ownership submission goes back to the DOJ through the same connection once you have built its ownership register in Fintura. There is nothing to connect or authorise before you can search. Registering a new trust with the Master of the High Court is not available.
The trust and its trustees. That is everything that comes in, and it exists so a trust client is onboarded without the trustee list being typed in. Trust deeds, amendments, beneficiaries and Master of the High Court correspondence are not pulled.
The Department of Justice trust register, which the Master of the High Court holds and where South African trusts are registered. Fintura searches it for the trust you are onboarding and returns the match for you to confirm before anything is written.
No. Trustees come across, beneficiaries do not. Anything else you need to record about the trust and the people behind it is captured in Fintura rather than pulled from the register.
CIPC holds companies and close corporations, so a trust has nothing to match against there. South African trusts are registered with the Master of the High Court instead, and that is the register Fintura searches when the client is a trust.
Related integrations
CIPC
Pull a company's official CIPC record onto a client, enrich a whole portfolio in one run, and file annual returns and changes to CIPC from inside Fintura.
COIDA and UIF
COIDA and UIF deadlines, forms and jobs, tracked against the client inside Fintura.
SARS
Every taxpayer on the client record, with VAT201 and EMP201 filed from there.
Xero
Turn approved time into Xero invoices, and see what has been paid.
The modules behind this: Client onboarding · Beneficial ownership
