In common law jurisdictions, the trust is one of the most popular legal institutions for wealth management. Most civil law jurisdictions, however, have yet to embrace it. Debates continue as to the nature of the trust and its compatibility with indigenous legal concepts in civil law. The enactment of a domestic trust statute in China in 2001, and in major civil law jurisdictions in Asia (such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea) have demonstrated the practical importance of such debates in shaping trust legislation. Accordingly, this article seeks to take stock of the Asian approaches in receiving the trust, in the hope that insights can be drawn for the benefit of jurisdictions beyond Asia. The article first considers what the core features of the common law trust might be. Then, it looks at how these four jurisdictions adopt them, if not all, in their trust statutes and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of the respective approaches.