Abstract There is a growing interest of wealthy families in stewardship ownership planning, which stems from developments in society and an increased awareness on the wise long-term use of wealth in a modern society, following long-standing examples in the North European culture. In the common law part of the world, these developments are driven by international financial centres with a quick adaptive mind, now followed by discussions on the development of trust law more generally. In the classic European foundation legislations, pure stewardship planning is stretching the legal limits as well and most often, the most likely option is the use of the strictly regulated charitable foundation. The author describes the distinct approaches from a comparative and Dutch stewardship perspective based on a corporate foundation model, that historically allows a self-serving or purely stewardship ownership structure. These stewardship foundations are not structured with the intention to serve private interests of the family that divested their ownership and should not be regarded as an APV or similar target of anti-abuse legislation that applies to discretionary private trusts and foundations.