Fiducie — Pôle transverse · BENSAID Avocats Paris & Genève
Un constituant transfère temporairement la propriété de biens à un tiers de confiance — l'avocat fiduciaire — qui les détient pour une mission déterminée, au bénéfice d'un tiers.
Les biens sont à l'abri des créanciers — du constituant comme du fiduciaire.
A cross-cutting practice of the firm: the fiducie is not a discipline but a legal tool with multiple uses — security, wealth management, real-estate holding, custody of artworks. BENSAID Avocats structures the four forms of fiducie in the service of financings, guarantees, restructurings and wealth transfers. A practice led by Jonathan Bensaid (founding partner) and Lauren Bensaid (Banking & Finance partner).
The fiducie is a French-law legal mechanism allowing the temporary transfer of assets, rights or security to a fiduciary, tasked with holding them in a separate pool of assets for a defined purpose. It is mainly governed by articles 2011 to 2030 of the Civil Code.
Three stages structure the life of the arrangement: the creation (transfer of assets to the fiduciary under the contract), the separate pool of assets (segregation of the assets from the fiduciary's own assets), then the unwinding (return, retention or realisation depending on the purpose). The two best-known forms are the security fiducie and the management fiducie.
The firm deliberately takes on a limited number of matters to guarantee the partners' direct involvement in each case, and systematically assesses the relevance of acting before any engagement.
Strengthening a creditor's protection through the temporary transfer of ownership of an asset. A central mechanism to secure a structured financing.
Organising the administration, safekeeping or governance of a dedicated pool of assets. A tool of wealth engineering and asset structuring.
A vehicle for real-estate structuring — development, holding, restructuring of land or built assets. Specific tax interaction.
Design and documentation of structures using the fiducie as the central building block — security, asset segregation, cash-flow waterfall.
NewCo + bank pool + availability agreement architecture. Why the fiducie outperforms the classic pledge in leveraged transactions.
Conciliation, safeguard, judicial reorganisation — the security fiducie in pre-insolvency proceedings. Conciliation privilege and resistance to suspect-period nullities.
A comparison across 5 dimensions: asset protection, financing, taxation, transfer, governance. Complementary tools rather than competitors.
Family art trust: durably protecting, managing and transferring a collection. Interaction of dation, patronage and the 6.5% flat tax.
Structuring wealth philanthropy via a public-benefit foundation or an endowment fund. Fiduciary pre-endowment and multi-year patronage commitment.
Paris · Geneva — a coherent cross-border practice.
The fiducie referred to here is a French-law mechanism. In matters involving parties located in Switzerland, it is essential to correctly articulate the fiducie contract with the operational, tax and documentary cross-border issues. Note: in Switzerland, “fiduciaire” means a chartered accountant — a concept distinct from the French legal arrangement.
Matters where the assets or counterparties are located in France, with Swiss banking or wealth contacts.
Financing, holding or restructuring transactions spanning several jurisdictions.
Alignment of contracts, security and taxation to avoid friction between the two practices.
Wealth structuring with an international dimension, including private banks, investors and entrepreneurs.
To go deeper into each of the two main forms of fiducie, we have designed two distinct resources, designed for practitioners, creditors, fiduciaries and settlors.
The reference site on the security fiducie: structuring, implementation, default scenarios, realisation, interaction with other security and operational feedback.
Découvrir le site dédié fiduciegestion.comThe site dedicated to the management fiducie: asset governance, wealth holding, transfer engineering, contractual framework and long-term performance monitoring.
Découvrir le site dédiéThe fiducie practice is led by Jonathan Bensaid, founding partner, and Lauren Bensaid, in charge of the Banking & Finance practice. Together they cover the whole spectrum: security fiducie, management fiducie, real-estate fiducie, structured financings and restructurings. Acting in France and on France–Switzerland matters between Paris and Geneva.
The firm's analyses on developments in fiduciary practice.
The return to favour of the real-estate security fiducie in structured-financing transactions: use cases, interaction with other security, operational feedback.
Cross-cutting comparisonA comparative analysis of the two France–Switzerland mechanisms: legal regime, taxation, typical use cases and choice of jurisdiction depending on the nature of the transaction.
The fiducie is the operation by which one or more settlors transfer assets, rights or security to one or more fiduciaries, who hold them separately from their own assets and act for a defined purpose for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries.
The fiducie contract is the agreement organising the transfer of the assets, the fiduciary's mission, the duration, the beneficiaries, the management of the arrangement and the exit conditions.
The fiducie is mainly governed by articles 2011 to 2030 of the Civil Code, which often need to be articulated with security law, taxation and, in some cases, company law.
The security fiducie mainly aims to secure a debt through a temporary transfer of ownership. The management fiducie aims to administer, safeguard or govern assets held in a dedicated, segregated pool.
Buildings and real-estate rights, securities or shareholdings, receivables, accounts and contractual flows, and certain specific movable or wealth assets. The nature of the asset directly influences the formalities, taxation, documentation and enforcement terms.
The cost depends on the nature of the assets (buildings, securities and receivables do not require the same formalities), the complexity of the structure (number of parties, security, cross-border stakes), the objective pursued (a one-off security fiducie vs a management fiducie monitored over time) and the tax and regulatory analyses.
An incomplete drafting of the contract, a poor definition of the transferred assets, insufficient articulation with other security, poorly anticipated taxation or failing governance. We secure the scope, the fiduciary's powers, the events of default and the tax and contractual consistency.
The fiducie is a French-law mechanism, built around a contract and a separate pool of fiduciary assets. The trust belongs to a different legal tradition, arising from common law. The objectives may look similar, but the legal technique and the applicable rules are not the same — a specific analysis is needed in an international context.
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Written by
Me Jonathan Bensaid, avocat fiscaliste, fondateur du cabinet Bensaid Avocats, inscrit aux Barreaux de Paris & Genève.
© BENSAID Avocats — The information on this site does not constitute legal advice. Civil Code, articles 2011 to 2030. Editorial update: 31 March 2026.
