How-to zerodha trust account non-individual account trust deed

How to Open a Zerodha Account for a Trust

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This guide opens a Zerodha account for a trust, one of the non-individual account types that sits beside HUF , partnership and LLP , and corporate . It is written for a trustee, a trust’s chartered accountant, or a family-office administrator who needs the trust itself, not a trustee in a personal capacity, to hold and trade securities. The conceptual background to how a trust holds a trading and demat account sits at Zerodha trust account ; this is the operational walk-through.

A trust account is offline-only. There is no online eKYC path for a trust at Zerodha, because Aadhaar OTP and the digital esign represent an individual, and a trust is a legal arrangement under the Indian Trusts Act 1882 or its public-trust equivalents, not a natural person. So the entire file, the trust deed, the registration certificate, the trustee KYC, and the Ultimate Beneficial Owner annexure, is assembled on paper, emailed for review, and couriered to Zerodha’s Bengaluru office with the account-opening cheque.

Legal-structure caveat. Structure-specific requirements vary by trust type and state. Verify the exact checklist with Zerodha’s non-individual desk and your trust’s chartered accountant before executing, since the documents required differ by the trust’s KYC-registration status and by whether any trustee is an NRI.

Step-by-step procedure

The procedure infobox above lists the seven steps; each is expanded below with the specific Zerodha annexures and the attestation rules. The single biggest determinant of how heavy the file is, is whether the trust and its trustees are already KYC-registered: a registered trust skips most of the entity-document chain.

1. Confirm eligibility and trust type

Zerodha onboards both private trusts under the Indian Trusts Act 1882 and public registered trusts. The threshold test is the trust deed: it must carry an investment clause permitting investment in securities. A deed silent on investment cannot support a trading account, and amending a deed to add the clause is a legal exercise the trustees must complete first. A public registered trust additionally needs a registration certificate, such as the 12-AA registration certificate.

2. Download the non-individual forms and annexures

Download the equity application form, the commodity segment-addition form if the trust will trade MCX, the signature guidelines, and the FATCA declaration with its sample. The trust-specific annexures are Annexure A, the authority letter, and Annexure 4, each prepared on the trust’s letterhead. The letterhead requirement is what distinguishes the entity file from an individual offline file .

3. Assemble the entity documents

For a trust whose KYC is not yet registered, the entity chain is: a PAN copy of the trust with the seal and signature of an authorised signatory or trustee; the trust’s address proof with seal and signature; the trust deed with the investment clause, attested by a public notary, with the first three pages carrying the trust seal and authorised-signatory signature; the registration certificate; the latest two years’ balance sheet, CA-attested with a UDIN number; a CA net-worth certificate with UDIN if the trust is newly incorporated; and a bank proof, a cancelled cheque or bank statement or passbook. A trust whose KYC is already registered submits a much shorter set: the application form, the FATCA declaration, Annexure 4, the balance sheet, the bank proof, and income proof if applicable.

4. Assemble each trustee’s KYC and the authority letter

Each trustee signs an individual KYC form, signed without the trust stamp, plus a self-attested PAN copy and a self-attested address proof, with a masked Aadhaar where Aadhaar is the proof. An additional PAN copy of the authorised signatories carries the trust seal and signature. The authority letter on the trust letterhead, together with Annexure A, names who is authorised to operate the account; this is the closest the file comes to a board or trustee resolution, which Zerodha captures through these two annexures rather than a separately titled resolution document.

5. Complete the UBO annexure

Any individual holding 10 percent or more of the trust’s shareholding, capital, or profits is an Ultimate Beneficial Owner and submits the UBO annexure, signed on page three with the authorised person’s seal and signature, plus a self-attested PAN and address proof. Where an entity rather than a person crosses the 10 percent line, the annexure extends to that entity’s shareholders, their PAN and address proof, and the entity’s latest shareholding pattern on letterhead. The UBO chain is a SEBI anti-money-laundering requirement that applies identically across brokers.

6. Complete In-Person Verification

IPV is mandatory for every broker under the SEBI KYC framework, and the trust file is no exception. The authorised signatories complete In-Person Verification , online or offline. The video ties the live signatory to the documents in the file.

7. Email for review, then courier with the cheque

Email the soft copies of all forms to Zerodha’s non-individual desk for review. The forms come back flagged if a correction is needed; fix and resend. Once cleared, courier the physical set with a Rs 500 cheque in favour of Zerodha Broking Limited to the Zerodha Customer Support Centre in Bengaluru. The non-individual support line is 080 4680 5727. To enable the currency derivative segment , add the RBI declaration form to the courier.

Eligibility and the registered-versus-unregistered split

A trust is eligible if it is validly constituted and its deed permits securities investment. Whether the trust is private or public matters less than whether the trust and its trustees are already KYC-registered, because that status decides the document weight. The unregistered file needs the full entity chain in step 3; the registered file is reduced to the application form, FATCA, Annexure 4, the balance sheet, the bank proof, and any income proof. An NRI trustee adds a notarised and self-attested PAN, a notarised overseas address proof, a valid passport and visa, and a FATCA declaration with TIN details.

Charges for a trust account

Account opening is Rs 500, paid by cheque, reflecting the higher compliance cost of a non-individual file against the free resident-individual account . The account maintenance charge is Rs 75 plus 18 percent GST every three months from the opening date. Brokerage matches an individual account except equity delivery: Rs 20 per executed order or 0.1 percent of turnover, whichever is lower, on delivery; Rs 20 or 0.03 percent on intraday and futures; Rs 20 per executed order on options. The DP charge is Rs 13 plus GST per scrip on sell, and call-and-trade is Rs 50 per order. The full schedule sits at Zerodha trust account .

Trading, tax, and the no-nominee rule

Once live, the trust account trades the same equity , F&O , currency , and commodity segments as any account, with segment addition done offline through the same forms. A trust cannot add a nominee: per CDSL guidelines the nomination facility is available only for individual demat accounts, so transmission on a trustee’s death follows the trust deed and the trust’s succession terms , not a demat nominee. Taxation of a trust’s trading gains is distinct from an individual’s; the trust mutual-fund tax handling guide covers the parallel mutual-fund case, and a trust holding mutual funds directly opens a separate folio. For complex trust taxation, consult a chartered accountant before filing.

See also

External references

References

  1. Zerodha Support, “What documents are required to open an account for a trust at Zerodha?” non-individual-accounts trust-account article, accessed 19 June 2026. Source for the registered-vs-unregistered document split, the notary-attested trust deed with investment clause, Annexures A and 4, the authority letter, individual trustee KYC, the UBO annexure, the NRI-trustee additions, and the no-nominee rule.
  2. Zerodha Support, “Charges applicable to a trust account at Zerodha,” non-individual-accounts article, accessed 19 June 2026. Source for the Rs 500 opening charge, the Rs 75 plus GST quarterly AMC, the brokerage schedule, and the DP and call-and-trade charges.
  3. Zerodha Support, “How to open a non-individual account with Zerodha,” company article, accessed 19 June 2026. Source for the offline-only non-individual process.
  4. Indian Trusts Act 1882, governing private trusts in India.
  5. SEBI KYC and anti-money-laundering requirements, including the Ultimate Beneficial Owner identification rule and mandatory In-Person Verification.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Zerodha open accounts for trusts?
Yes. Zerodha onboards trusts as a non-individual account type, alongside HUF, partnership, LLP, corporate, society, and AOP accounts. The trust account is offline-only; there is no online opening path for a trust.
What is the single most important trust document?
The trust deed with an investment clause, attested by a public notary. The deed must explicitly permit investment in securities. Zerodha needs the first three pages carrying the trust seal and the authorised signatory’s signature, and a registration certificate for a public registered trust.
Can a trust trade F&O and commodities at Zerodha?
Yes, with income proof for the entity, such as a six-month firm bank statement, audited profit and loss statement, ITR acknowledgement, CA net-worth certificate with UDIN, or DP holding statement. Non-individual segment addition is done offline.
Can a trust account have a nominee at Zerodha?
No. Per CDSL guidelines the nomination facility is available only for individual demat accounts, so a trust, like every non-individual account, cannot add a nominee.
What does a Zerodha trust account cost?
Account opening is Rs 500 for a trust, paid by cheque in favour of Zerodha Broking Limited. The account maintenance charge is Rs 75 plus 18 percent GST every three months from the opening date. Brokerage matches an individual account except equity delivery.

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