This feature looks at the implications of the G8’s call for more transparency with regard to the beneficial ownership of companies and legal arrangements for offshore trusts. Continue
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The current controversy over the tax affairs of wealthy celebrities in the United Kingdom has cast an unwelcome spotlight onto offshore territories like Guernsey and Jersey, and has led some to suggest that the offshore trust, at least as far as these jurisdictions are concerned, has had its day, with David Cameron’s coalition government expected to fire a new volley of anti-avoidance legislation in their direction. Leading political and finance industry figures in the islands, however, beg to differ. Continue
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Seeking to add another string to its financial services bow, the Hong Kong government has issued comprehensive proposals to update the territory’s trust laws, which are designed to better cater for the needs of modern-day trusts, strengthen the competitiveness of the jurisdiction’s trust business segment and consolidate the status of Hong Kong as an international asset management centre. Continue
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Two key rulings in the common law trust arena by the English Privy Council and the Royal Court of Jersey respectively last June are expected to have a significant impact on the way in which trust law is applied and interpreted in future cases involving Guernsey and Jersey trusts. Continue
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Foundations have long existed in civil law countries where the concept of an Anglo-Saxon trust is unfamiliar. But as competition for a larger slice of the global wealth management cake has intensified in recent years, several, mainly offshore, common law jurisdictions have accommodated foundations laws into their own suites of offshore legislation in order to attract new money from a rapidly increasing population of wealthy individuals and families in emerging economies such as China, Russia, and in Latin America. Continue
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