Reviewed 4 November 2026.
A fideicomiso is a Mexican trust. The fideicomitente (settlor) transfers ownership of property or rights to an institución fiduciaria (trustee) for a lawful, specified purpose, and the trustee carries it out for the fideicomisario (beneficiary), under Article 381 of the Ley General de Títulos y Operaciones de Crédito (LGTOC, the General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Operations). Only institutions the law expressly authorizes may act as trustee (Article 385), and for a foreign buyer's home near a coast or border that institution is a Mexican bank. The bank holds title. The buyer holds the right to use and enjoy the property.
That structure decides how a property in trust is checked. The seller does not own the house in the sense a US buyer expects. A bank does, under a deed, a government permit and instructions that sit partly in the public registry and partly in the bank's own files. Checking the property is therefore a check of the trust, and on any purchase near a coast or border it belongs within due diligence in Mexico.
Our guide to checking property title in Mexico covers title, ejido land and the notary. This article covers the trust itself, and how to find one when the papers are lost.
What a fideicomiso is under Mexican law
The fideicomiso is regulated in Articles 381 to 407 of the LGTOC. Its last reform, of 26 March 2024, did not touch the trust chapter, most of which dates from a decree of 13 June 2003. The settlor must have capacity to transfer the property (Article 384). The beneficiary may be anyone with capacity to receive the benefit, named in the deed or later, and a trust is valid without a named beneficiary if its purpose is lawful and determinate and the trustee has accepted the appointment (Article 382).
The Ley de Instituciones de Crédito (LIC, the Credit Institutions Law), last reformed on 14 November 2025, authorizes banks to carry out trust operations (Article 46, fraction XV). A bank acts as trustee through its delegados fiduciarios (fiduciary officers) and is civilly liable for damage caused by failing to meet the terms of the trust or the law (Article 80).
Trust property is a separate estate. It is bound to the trust's purpose, the trustee must record it apart from its own assets, and a trust made to defraud third parties can be challenged for nullity at any time by those affected (Article 386 LGTOC). The trust must be in writing (Article 387). A trust over real estate must be recorded in the public property registry where the property sits, and it binds third parties from the date of recording (Article 388).
How a Mexican fideicomiso differs from a US trust
A US reader used to a revocable living trust with a family member as trustee will find four differences. The first is the trustee. In Mexico the role is reserved to an authorized institution (Article 385), so a relative or the settlor cannot hold it.
The second is revocation. Under Section 602 of the Uniform Trust Code, which many US states have adopted, a settlor may revoke or amend a trust unless its terms expressly make it irrevocable. Mexico reverses the default. A settlor may revoke a fideicomiso only if the deed expressly reserved that right (Article 392, fraction VI, LGTOC), so a trust whose deed is silent is irrevocable.
The third is publicity. Secret trusts are prohibited (Article 394, fraction I), and a trust over land appears in the property registry. The fourth applies to restricted-zone trusts, in which the beneficiary receives no derechos reales (rights in rem) over the property, only rights of use and enjoyment.
The restricted-zone trust in outline
Mexico's restricted zone is the strip 100 kilometers wide along the borders and 50 kilometers wide along the coasts. A foreigner who buys a home there holds it through a bank trust under a permit from the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Our property title guide covers the zone, the 50-year term, renewal before expiry and the rule for Mexican companies holding non-residential property.
The Ley de Inversión Extranjera (LIE, the Foreign Investment Law), last reformed on 27 May 2024, shapes the checks below. The SRE permit is issued for a credit institution to acquire the property as trustee, so only a bank can hold it (Article 11). The beneficiary may be a foreign person or a Mexican company without a clause excluding foreigners (Article 11). It receives the use and enjoyment of the property, including its fruits and any rental income, through third parties or through the trustee (Article 12).
Under Article 11 of the LIE regulation, the trustee keeps title for the whole term without granting real rights to the beneficiaries. Foreign beneficiaries agree to be treated as Mexicans as to those rights and not to invoke their governments' protection, on pain of losing the rights to the Nation.
Renewal is requested from the SRE through the trustee within the 90 business days before the trust expires, and the SRE grants it if the trust's conditions have been met (Article 12 of the regulation). An SRE agreement published on 16 June 2026 simplified the ministry's trust procedures, which include the permit, the extension, the trustee's annual report on substitutions and assignments, and the notice of extinction.
What to check when buying property held in trust
When the seller is a foreign beneficiary, what changes hands is the seller's position in a trust, so each check below is a check on the trust.
The trust deed and the SRE permit
Ask the seller for the escritura pública (notarial deed) that constituted the trust, every later deed of assignment or amendment, and the SRE permit. The SRE's 2026 agreement asks for the deed of constitution and any assignments with an extension request. Read the deed for the purpose, the term and its start date, any substitute beneficiaries, any technical committee, and whether the settlor reserved revocation, and match the permit against it. A change in the trust's purposes needs the SRE's prior approval (Article 11, fraction V, of the regulation).
The registry entry and the folio real
The trust appears in the Registro Público de la Propiedad (public property registry) under the property's folio real, the registry's file number for that property. Because title passes to the trustee (Article 381 LGTOC), the entry names the bank, as trustee, as holder. In Quintana Roo, the registry's capture form for trusts records the trust number, the SRE permit number, the notary, the trustee and each beneficiary by rank, first or substitute, against the property's Folio Real Electrónico (electronic real folio).
The same form lists a constancia de ZOFEMAT (a certificate on the federal maritime-terrestrial zone) among the supporting documents, a subject covered in our article on beachfront property and the federal maritime zone. A current certificado de libertad de gravamen (certificate of liens) shows what is recorded against the property.
The trustee's written confirmation
Changes of beneficiary are made in deeds that pass through the trustee, which reports assignments and new substitute beneficiaries to the SRE once a year (Article 11, fraction III, of the regulation). Confirm the current position with the trustee rather than relying on the registry entry alone. Ask for a letter naming the current beneficiary and any substitutes, stating the expiry date, and listing any instruction, lien or claim on file. The trustee will not answer the buyer directly. Fiduciary secrecy lets it inform only the parties and their representatives, so the request goes in with the seller's signed authorization.
Trustee fees and property tax
Ask for the trustee's statement of fees, with the predial (property tax) and water receipts. Unpaid trustee fees carry their own risk. If the trustee has not been paid its agreed fees for three years or more, Article 392 Bis LGTOC allows it to terminate the trust without liability, after giving the settlor and beneficiary 15 business days to pay, and to transfer the assets to whichever of them corresponds.
An assignment of beneficiary rights or a new trust
A sale of property held in trust can take one of two forms. In a cesión de derechos fideicomisarios (assignment of beneficiary rights) the seller assigns its rights to the buyer inside the existing trust. The regulation treats an assignment to a foreign person, or to a Mexican company that admits foreigners, in a residential trust as a matter for the trustee's annual report to the SRE (Article 11, fraction III). The buyer takes the trust as it stands, with the same trustee, deed and expiry date.
The alternative is to extinguish the trust and place the property in a new one for the buyer. That needs a new SRE permit, since the permit is issued for the bank's acquisition as trustee (Article 11 LIE), and the old trustee must notify the SRE of the extinction within 40 business days (Article 11, fraction VI, of the regulation). An assignment leaves the buyer with the rest of the seller's term. A new trust starts a new one. Which form suits the deal is a question for the buyer's notary and Mexican counsel.
The trustee's instruction process
The trustee acts through its fiduciary officers and on instructions given in the form the deed requires. Where the deed creates a comité técnico (technical committee), the trustee is released from liability when it follows the committee's decisions within the trust's purposes and the law (Article 80 LIC). Because the trustee holds title, the closing depends on its signature, so ask early for its requirements and fees and schedule the closing around its review.
Substitute beneficiaries and the beneficiary's death
A settlor may name several beneficiaries to benefit together or in succession (Article 383 LGTOC), and a deed can name fideicomisarios sustitutos (substitute beneficiaries) to take the place of the first. Article 394, fraction II, sets the limit: where each beneficiary replaces the previous one on death, the substitute must be alive or already conceived when the settlor dies.
When the beneficiary dies and the deed names a valid substitute, the substitute's claim rests on the deed. Ask the trustee in writing what proof it requires before it recognizes the substitute.
Where the deed names no substitute, the rights pass with the beneficiary's estate, because an inheritance comprises every right of the deceased that death does not extinguish (Article 1281 of the Código Civil Federal, the Federal Civil Code). The heir has to show the trustee that it holds those rights before the trustee will deal with it. A buyer from an heir checks the full chain: the deed, the death, the succession and the trustee's recognition of the heir.
Fiduciary secrecy: who can get information from the trustee
Information on a bank's trust operations is confidential under Article 142 of the LIC, as amended on 10 January 2014. The bank may give it only to the parties, among them the fideicomitente and the fideicomisario, to their legal representatives, or to someone holding a power to take part in the operation. It must also give it to a judicial authority that orders it in a proceeding in which the settlor, the beneficiary or the trustee is a party or defendant. Listed authorities, among them prosecutors and the federal tax authorities, may obtain it through the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV, the banking regulator).
A buyer, lender or investigator therefore has no right to information from the trustee and works through the beneficiary's written authorization. A family member who is not a party, including an heir the trustee has not yet recognized, receives nothing until it shows that it holds or represents the settlor's or beneficiary's rights. The same article governs bank accounts, as our guide to finding a person in Mexico explains.
Guarantee trusts and irrevocable trusts outside real estate
Guarantee trusts
A fideicomiso de garantía (guarantee trust) secures an obligation and gives the creditor priority in payment (Articles 395 to 407 LGTOC). Its trustee may be a bank, an insurance or bonding company, a brokerage house, a general deposit warehouse or another institution Article 395 lists, and that institution may also be the beneficiary when the trust secures its own loan (Article 396). The parties may agree a procedure for the trustee to sell the trust property out of court (Article 403).
For a buyer, property in a guarantee trust is security for someone else's debt. The trust ends when its purpose is achieved (Article 392), and real estate leaves it once the trustee declares the transfer and the declaration is recorded in the property registry (Article 393). The buyer needs the creditor's confirmation of payment and the trustee's recorded declaration, or a closing structured to deliver both.
Irrevocable trusts over money, shares and other assets
Any asset or right may be placed in trust except rights strictly personal to their holder (Article 386), so a fideicomiso can hold investments, shares or cash for children or heirs. Such a trust is irrevocable unless the deed reserved revocation. The beneficiary may demand that the trustee perform, challenge acts done in bad faith or beyond the trustee's powers, and recover assets that left the trust through such acts (Article 390).
One request we receive is to locate an irrevocable trust set up years earlier and to identify its trustee, assets and beneficiaries, when the family no longer holds the papers. Article 392 Bis matters here. If the trustee's fees have gone unpaid for three years or more and, after reasonable efforts, it cannot locate the settlor or beneficiary, it may credit liquid assets to the bank's global account under Article 61 of the LIC, and sell other assets and credit the proceeds there after deducting its costs. An old trust may have ended, or its assets moved, before the family begins to look.
How to locate a trust when the papers are lost
The search starts from what the family still knows, whether a property, a bank, a notary or a year, and tracing what the trust held and where those assets went is the work of our asset tracing in Mexico service.
The property registry
If the trust holds real estate, the state property registry comes first. Registries are usually indexed by folio real rather than by owner, so the search runs from the property's address or an old deed reference to its folio. Because the entry names the bank as holder in its capacity as trustee, a search under the family's surname can miss it. Once found, the entry gives the trustee and the notary, and in states that record them as Quintana Roo does, the trust number and the SRE permit number.
The notary and the SRE permit
A restricted-zone trust is constituted in a public deed before a notary, and the original stays in the notary's protocol. Copies come from the notary or the state notarial archive. Notarial law is state law and restricts access, and the Estado de México archive, for example, asks for proof of a legal interest, as our Mexico company search guide explains. The SRE permit number in the deed identifies the trust in the SRE's procedures, which include the trustee's annual report and its notice of extinction.
The trustee bank
The trustee holds the deed, the record of beneficiaries and the account of the trust's assets. Given Article 142, the request should come from a party or a proven representative. Every financial institution must have a unidad especializada (specialized unit) that answers users' inquiries and complaints in writing within 30 business days, under Article 50 Bis of the Ley de Protección y Defensa al Usuario de Servicios Financieros (LPDUSF, the Financial Services User Protection Law), last reformed on 14 November 2025.
CONDUSEF when the bank does not respond
The Comisión Nacional para la Protección y Defensa de los Usuarios de Servicios Financieros (CONDUSEF, the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Users) acts as conciliator between users and financial institutions (Article 60 LPDUSF). In trust matters it hears only claims by settlors or beneficiaries against trustees (Article 60). A claim must be filed within two years of the event or of the institution's refusal (Article 65), and in conciliation CONDUSEF may require the institution to deliver any information related to the claim (Article 68). It helps a settlor or beneficiary whose trustee will not answer and gives no one else access to trust information.
Where we come in
Warden Consulting carries out the record and field work behind checks on property and assets held in trust, as part of due diligence in Mexico, from its office in the World Trade Center in Mexico City. Investigating lawyers work the state property registries, and investigators work in the states where the property sits. That means registry searches to locate a trust and its trustee, verification of the beneficiary of record and the chain of assignments against the trustee's confirmation, and a background check on the seller. Where a trust or its assets have been lost from view, we trace the assets held in it.
We report what each record establishes and mark where the records and the trustee's confirmation disagree, so that the buyer, the family and their Mexican counsel can decide what to resolve before signing or filing. To scope a review, contact our Mexico City office.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fideicomiso in Mexico?
A trust in which a settlor transfers ownership of property or rights to an authorized institution, the trustee, to carry out a lawful, specified purpose for a beneficiary (Article 381 of the LGTOC). In the restricted zone a bank holds a foreign buyer's home as trustee under an SRE permit.
Do foreigners need a fideicomiso to buy beachfront property in Mexico?
For a home within 50 kilometers of the coast or 100 kilometers of a border, yes. A foreign individual holds it as beneficiary of a bank trust under an SRE permit (Articles 11 and 12 of the LIE). A Mexican company whose bylaws admit foreign investors may own property there directly only for non-residential use, with notice to the SRE within 60 business days (Article 10).
What happens to a fideicomiso when the beneficiary dies?
If the deed names a substitute beneficiary, the substitute takes the beneficiary's place on the deed's terms, provided that a substitute named to take on death was alive or conceived when the settlor died (Article 394, fraction II, of the LGTOC). If none is named, the rights pass with the beneficiary's estate (Article 1281 of the Federal Civil Code).
How long does a Mexican bank trust last, and how is it renewed?
A restricted-zone trust lasts up to 50 years and may be extended at the interested party's request (Article 13 of the LIE). The request goes to the SRE through the trustee within the 90 business days before the trust expires (Article 12 of the LIE regulation). Renewal is not automatic.
Can I find out who the beneficiary of a Mexican trust is?
Not from the bank, unless you are a party or represent one. Article 142 of the LIC limits disclosure to the parties and their representatives, a judge ordering it in a proceeding involving a party to the trust, and listed authorities. A buyer works from the registry entry, the deed and the seller's written authorization.
How do I find a lost fideicomiso?
Search the property registry of the state where the property sits by address or folio real, then go to the notary who executed the deed and to the trustee bank. For a restricted-zone trust, the SRE permit number identifies it. A settlor or beneficiary whose trustee does not respond can file a claim with CONDUSEF (Article 60 of the LPDUSF).
This article is general information, not legal advice.