Typically, the founder of the IBC holds the bearer shares and is therefore the IBC’s legal owner. However, being the owner of the IBC could be problematic if the founder were ever forced to divulge his or her assets. By means of an offshore trust, the founder can remove the potential liability of being the IBC’s owner without sacrificing privacy and complete control of his/her offshore corporation.

An offshore trust is created which takes possession of the IBC's bearer shares. The offshore trust then becomes the legal owner of the IBC. Ownership of the IBC is then in the hands of the offshore trust instead of the founder. This removes any liability that might have come with owning an offshore corporation. The offshore trust simply acts a a passive, non-involved shareholder and therefore does not alter the functionality or the privacy of the IBC. The founder retains complete control of the IBC: he/she remains the only individual with any knowledge of the IBC's business, the only one who uses the IBC, and the only one who may sign on any accounts in the IBC's name.

The offshore trust may also be used independently to hold domestic assets (car, home, real estate, art collections, etc.) that cannot be moved offshore. Moving domestic assets into an offshore trust protects them from lawsuits by taking them out of an individual’s (or company’s) name and placing them into the name of an offshore structure which third parties cannot obtain information about.

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