Family trusts
A Kenyan-law trust separates your personal assets from your estate for probate purposes, provides named beneficiary protection, and allows you to set conditions on how assets are distributed to future generations.
Wealth Structures
Is your wealth held in a structure that will survive you?
Pandadriver helps you select and implement legal wealth structures — holding companies, trusts, and family investment vehicles — built to protect capital across generations.
Why legal structure is the foundation of wealth protection
Capital held in the wrong structure is capital at risk. A successful business owner in Kenya who holds all their assets personally — property, equity, cash — has no legal separation between their business liabilities and their private wealth. A family that has accumulated significant assets without a formal succession mechanism relies entirely on probate, which in Kenya can take years and consume a meaningful portion of the estate in legal costs. Pandadriver helps clients understand what structures are available and appropriate for their situation: from a straightforward family trust that ring-fences assets and names clear beneficiaries, to a Kenyan holding company that separates operational risk from capital, to an offshore structure — where genuinely warranted and legally compliant — that provides additional protection and flexibility.
How we work — and what we do not do
We are advisors, not lawyers. Our role is to help you understand the strategic rationale for a particular structure, the costs and obligations it entails, and whether it genuinely fits your estate's size and complexity. Once a structure is selected, we work alongside your legal counsel — or refer you to specialists we have collaborated with — to implement it correctly. We do not draft trust deeds or register companies ourselves. What we do is make sure the structure you choose is not over-engineered for your situation, that you understand the ongoing compliance requirements, and that the structure genuinely serves your protection goals rather than existing as a paper exercise. We have seen clients pay significant sums for elaborate structures they did not need; avoiding that outcome is part of our value.
Structures we advise on
Each has a different cost, complexity, and protection profile — the right choice depends on your estate.
Holding companies
A holding structure places a legal entity between your operational businesses and your personal wealth, reducing the risk that a business liability reaches your family's capital. Useful for entrepreneurs with growing or multiple ventures.
Family investment vehicles
A jointly-owned investment entity — typically a limited liability partnership or private company — that allows family members to pool capital, define governance rules, and invest collectively without the complications of informal joint ownership.
“After my father passed, it took almost two years and a substantial amount in fees before we had control of the assets. When I set up my own estate plan with Pandadriver, the family trust they recommended meant that by the time the structure was live, I had genuine confidence my children would not go through the same ordeal.”
Peter N., Farmer and Business Owner, Trans Nzoia
Ready to put the right structure around your wealth?
Start with a confidential conversation with our advisory team in Kitale.