The multiplicity of laws to be complied with if trust and company service providers (TCSPs) operate in various jurisdictions, and the ever-changing regulatory landscape more generally can make it difficult for TCSPs to navigate and keep on top of their regulatory compliance obligations. Consistent with this, a clear majority of survey participants cited “general regulatory … Read more

On 8 April 2020, the High Court of New Zealand issued a judgment concluding that cryptocurrencies are a species of intangible personal property capable of being the subject matter of a trust. The judgment summarises recent case law from a number of jurisdictions on the proprietary status of cryptoassets and refers to the UK Jurisdiction … Read more

As part of our recent trust companies survey, we asked the participating trust companies what risk and compliance issues pose the greatest challenges to their business. Reputational risk as a business challenge As we reported in our previous publication on the results of the survey, the respondents identified beneficiary disputes as the least pressing issue. … Read more

In our recent trust company risk and compliance survey we asked trust companies what are the greatest risk and compliance challenges they face. The respondents identified beneficiary disputes, (i.e. disputes between the trustee and one or more of the beneficiaries) as one of the significant challenges trustees face. They nevertheless ranked it as the least … Read more

Between November 2019 and January 2020, we conducted a survey of trust companies. We asked trust companies of different sizes, from a variety of onshore and offshore jurisdictions, with different ownership structures, questions about the most significant risk and compliance issues they face. The survey comprised 18 questions, with a randomised order of possible answers … Read more

Welcome to Herbert Smith Freehills’ new monthly private wealth industry updates in Asia. Every month we survey ten Asian jurisdictions for legal developments concerning trust and estate planning which are of interest to the private wealth industry, and provide a succinct summary in a table format.  The jurisdictions covered in the update are Hong Kong, … Read more

Welcome to Herbert Smith Freehills’ new monthly private wealth industry updates in Asia. Every month we survey ten Asian jurisdictions for legal developments concerning trust and estate planning which are of interest to the private wealth industry, and provide a succinct summary in a table format.  The jurisdictions covered in the update are Hong Kong, … Read more

The case of Rusnano Capital AG (in liquidation) v Molard International (PTC) Limited and Pullborough International Corp [2019] GRC 011 concerns a Guernsey trust, which was settled pursuant to a trust deed dated 25 July 2014 (the “Trust”). Under section 53(3) of the Trusts (Guernsey) Law, 2007 (the “2007 Law”), beneficiaries are able to require … Read more