Nominee services are typically provided by an intermediary to disguise the beneficial owner's business. Nominee services relate to the nominee shareholder and the nominee director. As a rule, the nominee services should also include a PO box service (office address for correspondence purposes). Nominee services are suitable for large corporate tax planning structures and often include an international aspect. For example, the beneficial owner is based in another country and not the company itself.

Nominee shareholder services are typically provided on the basis of a declaration of trust whereby the nominee declares that they hold shares on behalf of someone else and have no authority to make decisions in the company, neither to vote at a shareholders' meeting nor to receive dividends from it unless the customer expressly gives an instruction. The nominee has no right to sell shares unless requested by the client. However, the Client and the Nominee may agree on specific tasks for the Nominee to perform. Such duties are often entrusted to lawyers and attorneys who have expertise in the field and can protect the interests of the client.

Nominee director, also called 'shadow director' who normally only appears for official records while the company is effectively run by the client by power of attorney. On the basis of an approval, the client can open a bank account and assume full corporate management and control.

Benefits of Nominee Services
The benefits of using nominee services are evident in cases where an entrepreneur wishes to maintain their privacy and reduce visibility in official records or does not want their name to be associated with the business in question. In addition, there may be times when a person may have restrictions on performing the proposed activity or the law may require local management, such as a local secretary in Hong Kong.


When a quick action is necessary to register a company abroad, in case the client cannot travel, it is often more convenient to temporarily appoint a local company manager. If the intention is to open a company in overseas jurisdiction, such as BVI, Belize, Hong Kong, it might be physically complicated to arrive in person.

Nominee services usually guarantee confidentiality and anonymity. However, a disclosure sometimes happen at bank or in investigation authorities during court proceedings.

The nominee services are widely used for tax planning and asset protection purposes. If ultimate beneficiary of completely corporate structure is based in low tax countries, he should enjoy the benefits of low tax system for the received dividends from the earned profits.

Other advantage derives from the registration country and is often referred to financial statements and reports. In some tax haven jurisdictions there is no need for submitting the annual, therefore, low auditing and bookkeeping requirements that provide certain advantages, if the person is willing to increase privacy and confidentiality and hide his/her assets.