Create and Manage Bare Trusts
What Are Bare Trusts?
Bare Trusts (also called nominee trusts) allow a trustee to hold shares on behalf of a beneficiary. The beneficiary retains all capital and income rights while the trustee holds legal ownership. The trustee's role is minimal, the beneficiary maintains beneficial ownership and control.
For detailed information, see our Bare Trust guide.
Bare trusts are available on Cake's Pro plan. Contact our team via the chat for a quick quote to get access.
Add a bare trust to your cap table
Go to Cap Table and select the Shareholders tab.
Click + Add Bare trust.
Enter the trust name and trustee details:
Trustee type: Individual, Joint, or Corporate
Complete the remaining trustee fields
Click Create bare trust.
A new shareholder is created on your cap table with zero holdings. You can now issue shares into the trust.
Issue shares into a bare trust
When issuing shares: Follow the normal Add Shareholders and Issue Shares flow. In Advanced settings, select the holding trust from the dropdown, shares will be issued to the trust on your cap table.
Alternatively, navigate to the bare trust shareholder's profile and click Add beneficiaries to add beneficiaries directly within the trust.
Bare trusts and option exercises
When exercising stock options on behalf of a beneficiary:
In the exercise flow, select Exercise into Bare trust.
Choose the holding trust.
Shares are issued to the trust on your cap table, and you can view individual beneficial holdings within the trust.
Transfer shares into a bare trust
Use the standard transfer flow (Cap Table → Transfers → Add historical transfer) and select the beneficiary as the 'To shareholder' but ensure you have selected the Transfer into a Bare trust checkbox and selected the holding trust details.
What happens next
Shares held in the trust show under the trust's stakeholder profile. Individual beneficial holdings are visible within the trust record. Beneficial holders can view their holdings in My Cake if invited.
Local variations
Australia
Bare trusts are most commonly used in AU for employee share scheme arrangements. Your trust deed should specify the trustee–beneficiary relationship.
Cake doesn't provide legal advice on establishing bare trusts, contact our team via chat to be connected with legal partners who can help.
United States
The US equivalent of a bare trust is an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle). The process to set up is the same, but terminology is referred to as SPV throughout. Contact support to discuss SPV arrangements further.