Nominee services are typically provided by an intermediary to conceal the beneficial owner's business. Nominee services relate to nominee shareholders and nominee directors. As a rule, the nominee service should also include a PO box service (office address for correspondence purposes). Nominee services are suitable for large corporate structures for tax planning purposes and often involve international elements. For example, the beneficial owner is located in a different country than the company itself.

Nominee shareholder services are normally performed 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, vote at a shareholders' meeting, or receive dividends, unless: the customer has expressly instructed it. The nominee has no rights to sell shares unless requested by the client. However, the Client and the Agent may agree on specific tasks for the Agent to perform. Such duties are often delegated to lawyers and attorneys who are professionals in the field and can protect the interests of the client.

Nominated director, also called "shadow director", who usually only appears for official records, while the company is effectively ruled by the client by power of attorney. Based on the authorization, the customer can open a bank account and assume full management and control of the company.


Benefits of nominee services
The benefits of using nominee services are evident in cases where a business owner wishes to maintain their privacy and reduce access to official records or does not want their name to be associated with the business in question. In addition, there may be situations where an individual has restrictions on performing the proposed activity or where the law requires 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.