Question:  If a Trust owns 25% or more of a reporting company is the trustee a beneficial owner of the reporting company?

Answer:  Yes.  A beneficial owner of a reporting company is any individual who, directly or indirectly, through any contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship, or otherwise exercises substantial control over the entity or owns or controls not less than 25 percent of the ownership interests of the reporting company.

The trustee of a trust is the legal owner of the trust’s assets.  Normally the trustee’s ownership of a reporting company will satisfy the criteria set forth above, which makes the trustee a beneficial owner of the reporting company and the trustee’s information must be disclosed on the reporting company’s FinCEN report.

All trustees of a trust that satisfies the criteria set forth above are beneficial owners of the reporting company.  If Homer and Marge Simpson are trustees of their family estate planning trust that owns 25% or more of a reporting company then both of them must disclose their information on the reporting company’s FinCEN report.