Trusts are rooted in antiquity. The earliest evidence of a known trust was discovered in an Egyptian tomb. This was part of a document which contained a personal last will and testament that was written in the year 1805 BC. There were trusts in both Roman and Greek law. In Rome, a trust was known as "fiducia", from which the word fiduciary is derived.

The trust concept was officially recognized by Roman law over two thousand years ago during the reign of Emperor Augustus Caesar. This imperial acceptance of the trust resulted from the perfidious actions of a treacherous friend who was asked by a wealthy Roman father to act as the trustee of his property in the event of his death. The father's wife was not a Roman citizen and, because of this stumbling block, under Roman law neither she nor their children could inherit his property. The concerned father proposed to will his property to his friend in return for his promise to use it only for the benefit of the children. After the father's death, the friend inherited the property but betrayed the trust by using the property for his own benefit.

This wrong came to the attention of the Emperor, who ordered the "trustee" to be brought before the Roman courts. The judges found the so-called "friend" guilty of a breach of trust, for which he was punished. This ruling was the first recorded judicial approval of the trust in Roman law, and afterwards the device became so popular among Romans that a special court was created dealing exclusively with trust matters.

Ancient Germanic and French law also had a trust concept, and from the time of Mohammed the concept of the trust was a fundamental principle of Islamic law. In the Middle Ages, when the Knights Templar acted as international financiers, the trust was a common method used for royal and ecclesiastical investors, who desired to shield their financial activity from the public and each other.

It is interesting to note that the trust was probably the world's first tax shelter. In 16th-century England it took on tax shelter aspects, allowing citizens to avoid feudal taxes on property inheritances and transfers.

Over centuries, the trust concept was greatly refined by its use and development, especially in British common law nations and the United States. Court decisions in the U.S. have also played a large role in refining the law of domestic trusts, with significant legal and tax consequences.

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